Woman haunts Western tourists in suicide forest in Japan

McLeod told himself he would remember the woman he met in the Aokigahara forest with black pants, a gray shirt, long black hair but never saw her face.

Aokigahara Forest (also known as Kuroi Jukai - Black Sea of ​​Trees) is located at the foot of Mount Fuji, Japan. This place is famous for the creepy stories of countless unsolved suicides. Alasdair McLeod (UK) decided to visit the suicide forest during his trip to Japan.

Mount Fuji seen from Aokigahara forest. Photo: Shane Berry.

The bus from Kawaguchiko Station dropped McLeod off on the way to Aokigahara Forest. The bus attendant nodded to confirm the stop and pointed to the trail on the left. There are many natural caves here, such as the Fugaku Wind Cave and the Narusawa Ice Cave, which are must-sees for adventure enthusiasts.

He looked at her questioningly, wondering if she suspected he was headed somewhere other than the Fugaku cave. “How often did people ask you for directions to Aokigahara?” McLeod wrote.

Along the forest path leading to the Narusawa Ice Cave, cobwebs were strung with warning tape, marking the sealed entrance to the suicide forest. Several wooden signs were hammered into the ground.

McLeod stepped through the yellow-and-black rope-wrapped “No Entry” sign and walked in alone. Many who crossed this threshold must have had iron-clad reasons for dying, he thought. Rather than throwing themselves in front of a truck or drowning themselves in a river, they had made their choice after long deliberation and hesitation along the way.

Abandoned shoes in the woods. Photo: Rob Gilhooly.

McLeod walked into the woods alone. He stopped and listened to the wind rustling through the trees, and suddenly the name Sea of ​​Trees made more sense than ever.

McLeod used the sun as a compass to follow the road toward the light. He told himself that if he got lost, he would follow the sun to return north of the road.

The forest was covered with dry leaves, making every step noisy. As he walked, McLeod found a folder containing restaurant menus, local hotel room rates... things that belonged to the real world outside the forest.

He stopped along the way to look. To his right, a woman was sitting on what looked like a log or a rock. She was motionless.

McLeod continued walking, noticing the woman begin to move. From her figure and walk, he guessed she was in her fifties. Black pants, gray shirt, long black hair - he never saw her face. She walked more lightly than McLeod, they went in different directions.

The road McLeod followed became denser and denser, forcing him to weave through the low branches. He stopped often to look and listen, the countless layers of clothing unable to keep the cold from biting into his skin.

He wandered through the woods for several hours. Although he did not come across any bodies, the traces left behind by countless suicides were still there.

McLeod looked back at the forest one more time before leaving, and often thought about the middle-aged woman he had seen there. Spring was in full swing across Japan, with the pink of cherry blossoms, but there were no flowers blooming in Aokigahara.

Aokigahara has plenty of stories of past visitors to discover, if you stay long enough. It may be tempting to take souvenirs home, but this can have dire consequences. McLeod advises people not to take things that don’t belong to them.

According to VNE