Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck. Jerry's here, Dave's here, you know how Dave's here and this is short stuff.

Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck. Jerry's here, Dave's here, you know how Dave's here and this is short stuff.

That's right. This is a shorty from Dave Bruce, still a contributor to houstie works dot com, which is great. And this one everyone, we want to issue a big trigger warning. It is about the Aoki Gahara Forest in Japan. It has another name that people have called it the suicide forest, and we're going to be talking about that in this episode. And obviously that's a very touchy subject. We don't want anyone to be unnecessarily triggered by it, So don't listen if it's not your jam. And obviously, if you have some deep seated issues going on in your life and you've had these kinds of thoughts, you should call nine to eight eight, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

That's right. This is a shorty from Dave Bruce, still a contributor to houstie works dot com, which is great. And this one everyone, we want to issue a big trigger warning. It is about the Aoki Gahara Forest in Japan. It has another name that people have called it the suicide forest, and we're going to be talking about that in this episode. And obviously that's a very touchy subject. We don't want anyone to be unnecessarily triggered by it, So don't listen if it's not your jam. And obviously, if you have some deep seated issues going on in your life and you've had these kinds of thoughts, you should call nine to eight eight, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

Yeah, good, good call, Chuck, get a good call.

Yeah, good, good call, Chuck, get a good call.

That's right.

That's right.

So one of the other names for the Aoki Gahara Forest is the Jukai, which means the sea of trees, and it's because it's a huge swath of forest just in the uniformous forest. Yeah, that's that flanks Mount Fuji, has beautiful views of Mount Fuji. It's about a couple hours drive from Tokyo, and I think it built up over like a lava flow, that from an eruption in eight sixty four. And one of the reasons that it's it's famous not just for its views of Mount Fuji, but because, like you said, it's come to be known as the suicide Forest, because so many people travel to Aoki Gihara and never come out on purpose.

So one of the other names for the Aoki Gahara Forest is the Jukai, which means the sea of trees, and it's because it's a huge swath of forest just in the uniformous forest. Yeah, that's that flanks Mount Fuji, has beautiful views of Mount Fuji. It's about a couple hours drive from Tokyo, and I think it built up over like a lava flow, that from an eruption in eight sixty four. And one of the reasons that it's it's famous not just for its views of Mount Fuji, but because, like you said, it's come to be known as the suicide Forest, because so many people travel to Aoki Gihara and never come out on purpose.

That's right. There are no statistics anymore, and I think this is great that the government of Japan has stopped. I don't know if they stopped counting, but they at the very least stopped listing out statistic sticks on the number of suicides there. I think there were. They stopped that in sort of the mid twenty teens, but needless to say, it had happened a lot, and so they said, we're not going to, you know, publish these numbers anymore, which is I think the right thing to do. But where this all came from is sort of an interesting story because no one knows exactly what it is. We have some decent ideas. It's probably from these two books. That came along much later. But for a while people said it might have been this practice from like when was this actually.

That's right. There are no statistics anymore, and I think this is great that the government of Japan has stopped. I don't know if they stopped counting, but they at the very least stopped listing out statistic sticks on the number of suicides there. I think there were. They stopped that in sort of the mid twenty teens, but needless to say, it had happened a lot, and so they said, we're not going to, you know, publish these numbers anymore, which is I think the right thing to do. But where this all came from is sort of an interesting story because no one knows exactly what it is. We have some decent ideas. It's probably from these two books. That came along much later. But for a while people said it might have been this practice from like when was this actually.

The show kusimbutsu.

The show kusimbutsu.

Yeah, Adka had a date on that.

Yeah, Adka had a date on that.

I don't know, Chuck, but it said that it's been going on for at least a thousand years, or that it went on for a thousand years, so it went back quite quite a while.

I don't know, Chuck, but it said that it's been going on for at least a thousand years, or that it went on for a thousand years, so it went back quite quite a while.

Yeah, but what we're talking about is a certain sect of Buddhist monks, aescetic Buddhist monks who would go to forrests to meditate eventually until they died. They would supposedly go for like a thousand days. They would subsist on leaves and bark, and then they would bury themselves alive and scare quotes to continue that meditation in an underground crypt in order to sort of mummify themselves while still alive. And this is something that really happened. They have some of these mummies on display around Japan, even though scientists now think that they were mummified after they had passed away.

Yeah, but what we're talking about is a certain sect of Buddhist monks, aescetic Buddhist monks who would go to forrests to meditate eventually until they died. They would supposedly go for like a thousand days. They would subsist on leaves and bark, and then they would bury themselves alive and scare quotes to continue that meditation in an underground crypt in order to sort of mummify themselves while still alive. And this is something that really happened. They have some of these mummies on display around Japan, even though scientists now think that they were mummified after they had passed away.

Yeah, and it wasn't just a process of I'm going to go bury myself in an underground crypt and stop eating and drinking like this went on like you said, for a thousand days, like almost three years. Yeah, and they would purposely, like eat very little amounts and drink very little amounts to mummify themselves, right, rather than just die.

Yeah, and it wasn't just a process of I'm going to go bury myself in an underground crypt and stop eating and drinking like this went on like you said, for a thousand days, like almost three years. Yeah, and they would purposely, like eat very little amounts and drink very little amounts to mummify themselves, right, rather than just die.

Yeah. And so this idea, some people for a while said, maybe is where people got the idea that this forest is where you might want to go to do this. I don't think that's probably true, but maybe we should take a break and we'll talk about these couple of books that are probably where this idea came from. All right, nineteen sixty there's a short story written by a gentleman name. How would you pronounce that first name? Say, Echo Matsumoto, Yeah, yeah, all right, and it was called Tower of Waves. Always depend on you for Japanese pronunciation.

Yeah. And so this idea, some people for a while said, maybe is where people got the idea that this forest is where you might want to go to do this. I don't think that's probably true, but maybe we should take a break and we'll talk about these couple of books that are probably where this idea came from. All right, nineteen sixty there's a short story written by a gentleman name. How would you pronounce that first name? Say, Echo Matsumoto, Yeah, yeah, all right, and it was called Tower of Waves. Always depend on you for Japanese pronunciation.

Well, then technically it's Matsumoto. What I say, I'm just saying if you're depending No, I don't want to misguide you.

Well, then technically it's Matsumoto. What I say, I'm just saying if you're depending No, I don't want to misguide you.

No, no, no, no, that's fine. Why are you hitting me with the ruler right now? It was called Tower of Waves, and it's basically like a Romeo and Juliet esque plot, and that there are these young kids in love who are kept apart by something they can't control, and in the last scene, the woman writes a farewell letter it's very clearly Romeo and Juliet and takes a bottle of pills and goes into that very forest to die. And so a lot of people say, well, this is the actual you know, for the first time that forest has been linked to a suicide, at least in literature.

No, no, no, no, that's fine. Why are you hitting me with the ruler right now? It was called Tower of Waves, and it's basically like a Romeo and Juliet esque plot, and that there are these young kids in love who are kept apart by something they can't control, and in the last scene, the woman writes a farewell letter it's very clearly Romeo and Juliet and takes a bottle of pills and goes into that very forest to die. And so a lot of people say, well, this is the actual you know, for the first time that forest has been linked to a suicide, at least in literature.

Yeah, and that's probably part of it for sure. But I mean in the same way that the so kushimbutsu maybe gave people the idea of going off to the woods to die, and this story gave them the idea of going specifically the Aokigahara forest to die. There was so we just have to say real quick, the West, in particular uses the Japanese approach to suicide is kind of like a Pureian lens to like look through and be like, wow, this is like, can we can shed our own baggage or morality about suicide, because to us, Japanese people are like, sure, kill yourself, that's your own that's your jam, right, and that's not fair. That's not how Japanese culture actually views suicide, and in particular, modern Japanese culture abhors suicide and takes pains to prevent it's it's a scar on the national psyche. But back in the day, we would kind of look in on Japan and see that they had like actual rashes of like mass hysteria that would lead teenage girls to go jump in volcanoes, which happened from the twenties to the thirties. There was one girl in particular whose name was Kiyoko, and she threw herself into a volcano, an active volcan know Mount Mahara that wasn't in Ioka Gahara forests, but it was another example of people going to nature to take their own lives. And there was an article in Time from nineteen thirty five that basically almost tongue in cheek, covered this strange phenomenon in Japan. It really it's not very kind at all, especially if you step back and consider the material. But it's a good example of how we just kind of misunderstand the Japanese approach to suicide. They care about people taking their lives, there's just there's not the like religious morality attached to it. It's still tragic, it's just not you know, a slap in the face of God if you do that.

Yeah, and that's probably part of it for sure. But I mean in the same way that the so kushimbutsu maybe gave people the idea of going off to the woods to die, and this story gave them the idea of going specifically the Aokigahara forest to die. There was so we just have to say real quick, the West, in particular uses the Japanese approach to suicide is kind of like a Pureian lens to like look through and be like, wow, this is like, can we can shed our own baggage or morality about suicide, because to us, Japanese people are like, sure, kill yourself, that's your own that's your jam, right, and that's not fair. That's not how Japanese culture actually views suicide, and in particular, modern Japanese culture abhors suicide and takes pains to prevent it's it's a scar on the national psyche. But back in the day, we would kind of look in on Japan and see that they had like actual rashes of like mass hysteria that would lead teenage girls to go jump in volcanoes, which happened from the twenties to the thirties. There was one girl in particular whose name was Kiyoko, and she threw herself into a volcano, an active volcan know Mount Mahara that wasn't in Ioka Gahara forests, but it was another example of people going to nature to take their own lives. And there was an article in Time from nineteen thirty five that basically almost tongue in cheek, covered this strange phenomenon in Japan. It really it's not very kind at all, especially if you step back and consider the material. But it's a good example of how we just kind of misunderstand the Japanese approach to suicide. They care about people taking their lives, there's just there's not the like religious morality attached to it. It's still tragic, it's just not you know, a slap in the face of God if you do that.

In their culture, Yeah, and the government has really come a long way and messaging this stuff out. They have their own, of course, prevention in crisis hotlines and things like that. In this forest. They have trained the employees that work there and the volunteers who work there to look out for people who maybe be by themselves or look troubled. They have security cameras and stuff like that. They have messages in this park which we'll get to at the end, like the sign at the end. But another book that came along that probably had a lot to do with it as well, was written in nineteen ninety three in Japanese only called The Complete Suicide Manual by Wataru Serami Sarumimi Sarumimi.

In their culture, Yeah, and the government has really come a long way and messaging this stuff out. They have their own, of course, prevention in crisis hotlines and things like that. In this forest. They have trained the employees that work there and the volunteers who work there to look out for people who maybe be by themselves or look troubled. They have security cameras and stuff like that. They have messages in this park which we'll get to at the end, like the sign at the end. But another book that came along that probably had a lot to do with it as well, was written in nineteen ninety three in Japanese only called The Complete Suicide Manual by Wataru Serami Sarumimi Sarumimi.

When I'm not doing very well, well, it's like su right yeah, but that are really trips you up, so you're like tou rumy, but you have to say it like suui, and it just comes out like you're like blowing a raspberry.

When I'm not doing very well, well, it's like su right yeah, but that are really trips you up, so you're like tou rumy, but you have to say it like suui, and it just comes out like you're like blowing a raspberry.

Right, I gotcha. This is from nineteen ninety three, like I said, and it is, you know, there's no other way to say it than it is a sort of step by step ins and out manual of suicide. Whether it has merit what the drawbacks might be, different ways that that can happen in order to be successful. And there is a portion of that book that talks about this forest and as the perfect place to die, and some of these manuals apparently have been found with people who have gone to this forest to do just that. And you know, like, here's this beautiful, quiet forest. Your family's not going to stumble upon you, right, You'll just go on this trip and not come back.

Right, I gotcha. This is from nineteen ninety three, like I said, and it is, you know, there's no other way to say it than it is a sort of step by step ins and out manual of suicide. Whether it has merit what the drawbacks might be, different ways that that can happen in order to be successful. And there is a portion of that book that talks about this forest and as the perfect place to die, and some of these manuals apparently have been found with people who have gone to this forest to do just that. And you know, like, here's this beautiful, quiet forest. Your family's not going to stumble upon you, right, You'll just go on this trip and not come back.

And that's the thing. I think a lot of people who do this consider like they're considering their families or their friends. They're sparing them having to find them. But somebody else is going to probably find you, and they're going to be scarred by it. So it's not like this is this doesn't affect anybody, you know, Like it definitely affects the people who live near the forest, the people who volunteer to go clean up the forest, and the police who have to process these bodies too.

And that's the thing. I think a lot of people who do this consider like they're considering their families or their friends. They're sparing them having to find them. But somebody else is going to probably find you, and they're going to be scarred by it. So it's not like this is this doesn't affect anybody, you know, Like it definitely affects the people who live near the forest, the people who volunteer to go clean up the forest, and the police who have to process these bodies too.

So you know, that's sort of the long and short of it. There we mentioned a sign because they've taken great measures now to have more awareness on suicide in Japan and especially around the forest, but there are signs in the forest and as you enter the forests that say your life is a precious gift from your parents. Please think about your parents, siblings and children. Don't keep it to yourself, talk about your troubles, and then has their suicide helpline number included, which.

So you know, that's sort of the long and short of it. There we mentioned a sign because they've taken great measures now to have more awareness on suicide in Japan and especially around the forest, but there are signs in the forest and as you enter the forests that say your life is a precious gift from your parents. Please think about your parents, siblings and children. Don't keep it to yourself, talk about your troubles, and then has their suicide helpline number included, which.

Is great, It really is. So. Yeah, that's the Ioki Gahada Forest, one of the most unusual places in Japan and also one of the most beautiful I've heard.

Is great, It really is. So. Yeah, that's the Ioki Gahada Forest, one of the most unusual places in Japan and also one of the most beautiful I've heard.

Yeah, the pictures are amazing.

Yeah, the pictures are amazing.

Yeah, and I guess that's it, right, That's right, okay, everybody, Well, then short stuff is out.

Yeah, and I guess that's it, right, That's right, okay, everybody, Well, then short stuff is out.

Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.