TRIGGER WARNING-Discussion of suicide, please use discretion.
At the base of Mount Fuji, in Japan there is a forest, that is known to lure the sad and lost visitors off of the path, and into the depth of the forest, where they end up taking their own lives. Media has stopped reporting on how many complete suicide in Aokigahara, in hopes of stopping those who have romanticized the idea, and seek out the forest to spend their last hours on earth. Even still, there is an annual walk through of the forest where, police, volunteers and reporters go and look to bring home the bodies of those who followed through with their plan, in order to give their families some peace. Even, without reports, it is still estimated that over 100 people per year end there lives, under the eerily quiet canopy of tree. Is it just the serenity and calm of the woods that make this the place that people want to spend their last moments? or is it something more sinister?
If you’re interested in receiving bonus episodes, early release dates, an everything scary sticker and ‘thank you’ as well as a shout out on our regular feed! Please join at Patreon//everythingscarypod571
TRIGGER WARNING-Discussion of suicide, please use discretion.
At the base of Mount Fuji, in Japan there is a forest, that is known to lure the sad and lost visitors off of the path, and into the depth of the forest, where they end up taking their own lives. Media has stopped reporting on how many complete suicide in Aokigahara, in hopes of stopping those who have romanticized the idea, and seek out the forest to spend their last hours on earth. Even still, there is an annual walk through of the forest where, police, volunteers and reporters go and look to bring home the bodies of those who followed through with their plan, in order to give their families some peace. Even, without reports, it is still estimated that over 100 people per year end there lives, under the eerily quiet canopy of tree. Is it just the serenity and calm of the woods that make this the place that people want to spend their last moments? or is it something more sinister?
If you’re interested in receiving bonus episodes, early release dates, an everything scary sticker and ‘thank you’ as well as a shout out on our regular feed! Please join at Patreon//everythingscarypod571
Welcome to Everything Scary. My name is Lynn and I'm here with my co-host local celebrity, sorry, sorry, international celebrity. Thank you, matt McClain.
Speaker 2:Hello, hello.
Speaker 1:Every Tuesday we release a new episode, mostly true crime, but we've also been known to cover a pandemic, a haunting, a super mad, super strong chimpanzee. We'll cover anything and everything scary. Please rate us five stars and join us on Instagram at Everything Scary Pod. Here we go.
Speaker 2:Hello, hi there. Episode numero deuce from the living room.
Speaker 1:Yep, and it's episode numero deuce of the day. As a matter of fact, we're releasing both this and the black eyed kids on Halloween.
Speaker 2:We are Yep A double release.
Speaker 1:A double release.
Speaker 2:Love it. Yeah, well, that my favorite. Sorry to interrupt you, but my favorite everything scary pod was the one you did with the screen murders.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 2:I listened to it in one week maybe five times.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 2:Cause, yeah, last well, last October might have been I was rewatching all the screen movies and I would listen to that and then watch one, and then I'd miss something and I'd have to listen to it again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well, Haley was. I remember that one because Haley was like on my junk about me not knowing what kind of a dog was in the house.
Speaker 2:It was so annoying.
Speaker 1:She was like, well, maybe if it had been a Doberman, I'm like it's done. It happened Like this is like 2006. And, like me, knowing if it's a Doberman or not didn't make a difference. Sorry.
Speaker 2:Clark, I don't know what she's talking about.
Speaker 1:So happy Halloween. Is this the holiday that you're into, or do you like dress up or yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I like Halloween this year A little more subdued because I'm a dog sitting with Clark and he doesn't like it too much, so we're going to hang out in the basement, but normally I go over to my nephews. We went to trick or treating last year and there was a house and the guy was giving away cans of pop.
Speaker 1:Well, that's lazy.
Speaker 2:Well, I'll tell you what the biggest hit in the world, because my nephews and all of the 19 kids that they're trick or treating with are all screaming uncle Matt, man, we found the coke house. There's a coke house. Guys, everybody, let's go. We're going to the coke house, you're like no, that's over there.
Speaker 1:Oh, cola Got it.
Speaker 2:If you're going to give out coke next year and you're going to have the coke house, you might want to wear a white tuxedo and go to Stony Montana and just make the whole.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just you know, round it off the coke house. Oh boy, get Pepsi next year, sir the coke house.
Speaker 2:I thought I'd have more fixture.
Speaker 1:So I didn't appreciate this holiday. As a kid, you know it was one of the things that my mom would make us dress up and then she just put a fucking coat on us and then we'd just get a bunch of great candy and she did all the good stuff. It was like the chocolate peanut butter ones. We're like I could have sworn. I got like 80 of those last day, but I'm just like never heard of them.
Speaker 2:No, I don't think you did. I got a lot of these molasses too.
Speaker 1:Does the caramel choose to pull out your feelings?
Speaker 2:Oh God, the wrapper doesn't even separate from.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, my mom made all the good stuff. She was testing it, though, making sure it wasn't poison. Oh yeah, she was just Now they do the. This is a patron episode so we can talk about it. They do like the switch, which have you heard of that?
Speaker 2:Explain it so big.
Speaker 1:So we did it one year. It ends up costing a fortune. So they're your kids pick out. They get a small bag like a loop bag size kind of thing, and they pick out their favorite things and then they get to keep that and everything else, like their pillowcases full of candy, go to the switch which and she leaves you. She switches it out for a toy.
Speaker 1:Oh that's a cool move? I guess it is, but it costs a fortune because you're already paying for, first of all, fucking candy for the other kids, you're paying for their costumes, then you're buying everybody a goddamn present, and then I have to hide my bedroom and eat all this candy.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, you don't have to hide.
Speaker 1:Well, you do, because the witch took it right.
Speaker 2:That's true. Well, yeah, she did. And what's she doing with it? She's eating it in her bedroom.
Speaker 1:Like where did you get that Reese's? I'm like it's my turn now. Yeah, you're like, shut up, Mommy's a witch. So you know, I've kind of blossomed a little bit and I find this season a little bit more.
Speaker 2:Did you ever do the like sexy costumes?
Speaker 1:I mean in like my 20s. I remember me and my girlfriend Nadine. Nadine actually did the podcast with me a couple of times, but we went as Playboy Bonnies. Oh she did the black one and I did not like the black dress and I did like the pink satin one. But we had matching costumes and we just went to the village in and Bradford, which was like oh my God, did they think you were working downstairs?
Speaker 2:No, no, oh, yeah it was a classy you know with those walls could tell stories. Well, they probably the same. We're covered in STD.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no for sure. Actually, my friend Danielle heard and her husband met there and I think my sister Hailey she met her husband there. Tristan, Really, yeah, and you've met Tristan.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:He does not talk.
Speaker 2:He's like a normal.
Speaker 1:No, he's normal, they're both, I mean relatively normal, but he doesn't talk.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But he actually hit on Hailey and like it was probably the best thing that's ever happened to her.
Speaker 2:Really.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was like Tristan wasted his like few words that he's ever spoken on getting my sister, and I mean it worked out for all of them.
Speaker 2:He has a cap of 15 words per year. Yeah, no, he has.
Speaker 1:It was like when I was younger and my mom was trying to get me to stop biting my nails and she said that you only get a certain amount of nail in your whole life, and if you just like nibble it all away, then you're never going to have.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:And she's a liar.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:But that was what happened with Tristan and his, his words.
Speaker 2:My buddy thinks that you have a certain assigned, a number of heartbeats, and I said, well, that's why I don't work out.
Speaker 1:That's exactly right. So let's get into our second one. So this one's spooky. I'm not going to lie to you.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:I am going to lie to you and say that you will not be scared of this, which means you're going to be scared.
Speaker 2:I like the ember lights.
Speaker 1:Please don't. So I decided to do a story that's based in facts, so that you can't shut it down.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:I would consider them to be. This is a very spooky category and I'm going to be telling the story of the Japanese forest. It's called Egi Ikara, which is known as jukai, which means the sea of trees, but if you've heard of it at all, you may know about it as suicide forest.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:So, first and foremost, I'm going to have to give a trigger warning here, because it's not an easy subject for a lot of people and, as you can tell by my last sentence, the topic here will involve suicide. So if that's something you can't listen to, then I fully understand Respect that Join us for the next one.
Speaker 1:Yes, egi Ikara is a forest located at the base of man Fuji, which is made up of several overlapping volcanoes, and is located on Japan's largest island, known as Honshu. The forest itself is only about 35 square kilometers and the floor of the forest is made up of hardened lava.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 1:Yep, caused by the last time that man Fuji erupted, on December 16th 1707, and it carried on into 1708, which would be a terrible Christmas. It is also home to underground lava tubes.
Speaker 2:Oh God, Ever heard of them?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that created caves. Narasawa is an ice cave and is known as a natural refrigerator. Before the invention of the electric refrigerator, ice was taken from these caves in order to preserve food Cool.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:So, fugaki is I'm surprised you had nothing perverted. No, I'm just like. Fugaki just sounds dirty to me.
Speaker 2:Well, it does sound like bukkak. Do you know what that is? No, you're married, you don't? No, it's something awful. I do, I do remember it's something awful. Secondhand you may need a DM. We'll get her to DM you what it means.
Speaker 1:Okay, shm, hit me up. So Fugaki is also in the forest and this is a wind cave. Now these are all accessible for tours, they're called. Like you can go right underground and go and look at everything. The wind cave is really cool. It's fully circulated underground and has giant beautiful pillars of ice. When it's summer weather, even there's ice still.
Speaker 2:Have you ever gone like like Duntrune area, like the caving in there? No, there's a refrigerator there, like when it's like 40 degrees outside, it's still It'll go in this cave and it's like 10 degrees.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this one here is. They say it's kept at between zero and five degrees Celsius. Wow, Unreal. So there's also Psycho, which it's pronounced Psycho, but it's a bat cave which is known to house three different types of bats. So the forest is known for its eerie silence, and this is caused by the canopy of trees that create somewhat of a roof above it, but it is also due to the lava rock, which is quite porous and therefore very sound-absorbed.
Speaker 2:Really.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I actually knew that it was porous, but I know that it was sound-absorbed.
Speaker 1:It seems to be a place that many school children will attend field trips. Very oddly, yeah, I would be check-marking. No, for my kid on that one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's kind of a hard. No.
Speaker 1:Yeah, why don't you just stay home and we'll watch Netflix? How's that, tim? Like it's not uncommon to arrive at the entrance of the forest and find a vehicle with layers of undisturbed dust, with the contents of the vehicle remaining untouched since the last time the owner had exited it.
Speaker 1:When they had made the decision to walk into the forest with the plan to end their own life. There is actually an annual walk through the forest, where police officers, reporters and volunteers will go through and look for bodies of those who have chosen to walk through the silent forest, along with their thoughts, to look back on their life and make the decision that they no longer wish to go on.
Speaker 2:That's why I was wondering what the draw, or why that would be known as the suicide forest.
Speaker 1:Well, we'll get into some theories, but one thing that they do say is that it was really romanticized. There was a book that was written about it in the 1960s and since then there's been a number of movies and whatnot, but these suicides did predate all of that.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:It's anybody's guess, but there is some theories. These annual walks would allow for the family members of those who made their final decision to lay their bodies to rest and have some sort of closure in finally knowing for sure what happened to their loved ones. It is said that when you enter the forest, you feel chasms of emptiness. Wow, media outlets have stopped reporting on how many suicides or attempted suicides happened in Aga Okara, in an attempt to take away attention from it and not sensationalize the idea of taking one's life in the forest.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was thinking that the causes or the reasons may have been whatever back in the day, but now it just seems like it's such a popular interaction.
Speaker 1:It's the second most for suicides in the whole world. It's the biggest in.
Speaker 2:Japan, oh wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Where's that golden gate?
Speaker 1:I think it is the golden gate. Yeah, it is said that, though the forest itself has the ability to lure those inside and they're feeling lost off the path, at the beginning of the path into the forest, there's a sign. It's all written in Japanese, but the direct translation is life is a precious thing given to us by our parents. One more time, let's calmly think about our parents, siblings, children. Don't be troubled by yourself. Confide in someone.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's perfect.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Like, that's because you got to think about your loved ones. I think that's the only thing that will stop you 100%.
Speaker 2:You're obviously not thinking about yourself in a situation like that.
Speaker 1:The myth is that in the 19th century, if a family was struck with poverty we talked about this with the black-eyed kids they were left without options. They would either take the very old or the very young into the depth of Egi Okara and they would abandon them without any way to fend for themselves. This was known as Abusute, which direct translation was abandoning an old woman. It is the practice of carrying a relative that was not able to fend for themselves up a mountain or to some other desolate place and left to die. They believed that these souls would then haunt the forest and would lend to the feeling of loneliness and hopelessness that one would feel upon entering Egi Okara. Yuri is Japanese for a spirit or ghost that is unable to move on to their afterlife due to some injustice that was done to them in life.
Speaker 2:Oh God.
Speaker 1:It is commonly pictured as a gaunt woman with long black hair in a white robe. That looks a lot like the demons from the movie the Rick.
Speaker 2:I was just thinking that that's exactly what she looked like.
Speaker 1:Her face is stuck in a scream, looking Wow, yeah, it was creepy, oh my God. So the last recorded number of bodies was in 2003, when 105 people were found to have completed suicide, either by hanging or overdosing, in the sea of trees. As you continue to walk further and further into the forest, there are signs along the path advising visitors not to venture off the path and, if they are feeling sad or as if they may hurt themselves, to reconsider and seek help. It is said that with the naked eye, you can see orbs that float along and go along with you as you walk through the forest. Some will say that there are sudden dips in temperature and shadowy figures that seem to just be outside of your line of focus.
Speaker 2:As you look over yeah, it's like that one little thing that floats around. Yeah, the squiggling in your eye.
Speaker 1:So there have been cries where it sounds as if someone deeper into the forest needs help. A reporter for the Japanese Times said he once heard a blood curdling scream come from the depth of the woods and when he followed the noise, expecting to come across someone in need of help, he stumbled upon a man who was found dead at the base of a tree. And along the same lines of wanting to get people deeper into the forest, many have claimed to have misplaced their belongings and would stumble upon them later as they made their way deeper into the forest in a place that was much deeper in that they had never been before. What so like they would like you know, their camera or something like that it would just appear like way ahead of them on the path.
Speaker 1:It was, like you know, trying to lure them deeper and deeper into the heart of the forest.
Speaker 2:So the forest is saying come on in here.
Speaker 1:Get in here.
Speaker 2:Come on.
Speaker 1:So, hi, clark, he's looking at your notes. He's like you're a weirdo, aren't you?
Speaker 2:He's like I was in a forest today.
Speaker 1:Were you in a forest, different kind, he's so cute I know you're a good boy. So people will hear whispering and footsteps. Naysayers will explain these away, saying that you know the silence in the forest caused by the hardening lava and the moss below your feet which softens even your own footsteps, and that'll allow your mind to play tricks on you, like if you're in that you know something so deprived of sound, you just start to hear kind of what your mind will let you hear.
Speaker 2:Don't they say that when you lose a sense, All of your yeah, yeah, four other senses are heightened. That logic would apply there, I would think.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would think so. So, yeah, it'll allow your mind to play tricks on you, and the canopy above will let in just the smallest amount of light, causing you to believe that you're seeing shadows or orbs. The forest does also have some things that add to its eeriness. There will be ribbons left behind on trees, either by people who wish to simply venture off the beaten path and check out all of the beauty that the forest has to offer, or ribbons left behind by those who are considering ending their lives but want to know that they'll be able to find their way back if they choose to, you know not die by suicide.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So if they change their mind and decide that they want to live, though it is no longer reported, most sources estimate that there are roughly a hundred bodies recovered from the forest each year.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:Men are twice as likely to take their own lives and their ages are mostly between 20 to 44 years old, where women are more likely through the ages of 15 to 34. Again, people who do not believe that the forest is haunted will say that Japanese men in particular have a lot expected from them as far as schooling, employment and providing for family goes.
Speaker 2:But what does that have to do with?
Speaker 1:Well, I mean if they don't, if they you know, lose well, not in the haunting aspect. This is the people who are naysayers will say like oh, ok, ok, I got you so they have a lot on their plate. So tour guides that go into the forest are trained in suicide prevention.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, good, that's a good call.
Speaker 1:And in a rumor that I could not completely verify. I did hear about it in a couple different sources, but it was said that one tour guide by the name of Turi Kurihara was said to have located 36 bodies himself in one year.
Speaker 2:That's gotta be like. That's hard Right, my God.
Speaker 1:I watched a YouTube video of a self-proclaimed medium. This video is the only one that I've watched of her, so I don't really have much to base my opinion on her of.
Speaker 2:Are there mediums that are not self-proclaimed? Like somebody else will be like? You are a medium. Nah, no, you are Even the Long Island medium. I would think would be self-proclaimed or TLC proclaimed.
Speaker 1:Well, maybe who knows Like what, if you're just like sitting there.
Speaker 2:I'm a medium.
Speaker 1:Or maybe a self-proclaimed medium will be able to tell that you're a medium before you even know it. I'm not a self-proclaimed. Theresa Caputo told me that I was a medium, that's right. Exactly.
Speaker 2:I don't want to brag, but I'm a liar.
Speaker 1:So I watched this video. Her name is Kelsey Davies and she went into the forest at night with a ghost box which was able to pick up many voices and words from the spirits that were in the forest. Some spoke to her in English, while other voices spoke in Japanese, and you could hear it Like she wasn't just, like you could hear everything on the ghost box that was coming through Really. Yeah, it's really creepy, but you can get a feeling in watching this video exactly how silent the woods are Like. That's one thing that you have to take away from. It is because, like, her and her boyfriend are like whispering to each other Like what's that, what's that? And you can hear like a crack, like if you hear like a branch break, there's no animals. There's no like leafs rustling there's nothing.
Speaker 1:Super creepy, so creepy, and they kept going deeper and deeper and I'm like no turn around, like who's that? And oh so I think I wrote about it in here. So there's no noises or wind or anything. We go in with a light and in no time the light goes from having four bars of battery to one.
Speaker 1:Oh it's like draining their battery and her boyfriend keeps saying to such he's like it's draining our battery and then they've got like chargers and stuff in their backpack and it just keeps like calling everything. And because of the rich pine in Agio Cara, there is no cell phone service. Did you know that pine absorbs and reflects?
Speaker 2:Yeah, everybody knows that.
Speaker 1:Did you know that? No, no, I had no idea In my life. I was like and one of the things it was like the rich pine doesn't allow that. You have cell phone service and I was like, if you Google right now, does pine stop cell phone service? A resounding yes. It's like not even like it's like it's like yes, it absorbs all cell phone service Like you can't. You can't even use a compass in these forests. Your compass doesn't work. Your GPS doesn't work. Nothing like needs some sort of signaling out works.
Speaker 2:That's crazy.
Speaker 1:So she like they only had and that's what she was saying she had these things called these REM pods. I looked them up afterwards and it was supposed to be like they could feel the ambient noise of spirits. And so what it is is like these things will go off when they're sensing that there's a spirit by. And she said that sometimes they'll go off if her phone there's something going through to her phone. But she had her phone on airplane mode. She's like she's not trying to drain her battery. Well, she's out there.
Speaker 1:She can't get any service anyways, right. So she's like showing it on the screen, she's like my phone's on airplane mode and like these things are just going crazy. And then she was telling the spirit like make this one go off again. And it was it would go like crazy. And then she was like can you make that one go off again? And the other one would light up like crazy. Wow, I mean I don't really trust anything I see on YouTube.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but who knows?
Speaker 1:I mean she has 2.5 million subscribers, so I mean she's. I could just look her up and see if she's full of shit. But I mean what's fun?
Speaker 2:to just speculate.
Speaker 1:So you know, like I said, a compass won't even work properly in the forest. A shop owner whose shop is near the entrance to the forest, his name, is Hideo Watanabe. He interviewed with the Japanese Times and said that he has seen many people who have attempted to end their own lives come out, thankfully unable to complete their task. He even recalled calling an ambulance for one of the men who was in need of medical care.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:Yep and one of my more shocking discoveries and, like I asked you about this off air, but you have heard of it and I didn't know but famed YouTuber gone wrestler Logan Paul was all set on December 31st of 2017. To spend the night in the forest oh, is that what it was? Yes, so he was doing a series of blogs about his adventures in Japan.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Now, I don't know too much about Logan Same, but it was him. Two guys and one girl and one cup. God, I couldn't even sit through that. There's not. There is not a Chance in hell I could sit through that. I would throw up.
Speaker 2:Do you know of it?
Speaker 1:please, everybody knew about it. It was like the biggest thing compared to viral stuff nowadays.
Speaker 2:Did you see the big thing over the weekend in this week that are Britain on tick-tock about the Bachelor party no no, the girl going to a glory hole, and after you finish the glory hole you can hit a button to see who the person was, and and so she went to the glory hole and hit the button and I guess her dad was there.
Speaker 1:No, You're lying.
Speaker 2:That's like the biggest no. Picked it up. I guess mice look into it and tell bullshit.
Speaker 1:But thank God, thank Jesus, for that was.
Speaker 2:It lived for about a week as an actual story before it was debunked.
Speaker 1:Thank God for debunking. So these, you know, four people are all seemingly excited about going and spending the night in their tent in the fucking forest. They have a tour guide with them who's gonna help navigate the group and as they're bringing their tent and wandering off the Pack like and he's, this is 2017. So this guy was born in 1995. I ended up looking about a little bit. So he's 22 years old, like you know, he's like he's kind of an idiot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and he's wearing a Pokemon hat.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it wasn't Pokemon, it was minions. Oh, is that what it?
Speaker 2:was no. What are those?
Speaker 1:the squeaky guys, the squeaky guys from Toy Story, oh, that are in the claw machine.
Speaker 2:That's right, that's what he was right, yeah.
Speaker 1:So what happens here is they're bringing their tent wandering off path. Logan sees what he exclaims to appear to be a dead body and they're all kind of laughing like sure, bud yeah that kind of thing. I'm gonna go ahead here and give an extra true warning, because this gets quite graphic. The group moves closer to the figure and you can see that the man is just barely off of the ground.
Speaker 2:Oh, this is.
Speaker 1:They real? Yes, I, you thought it was a.
Speaker 2:I didn't know this was real.
Speaker 1:It's real.
Speaker 2:So he, oh, that's way worse. Yes, I thought this was a stunt and that they just said.
Speaker 1:Oh, he got like suspended from YouTube and everything for posting. He was saying in the video. He's like clearly I can't monetize from this video because of the content, but I'll get. And he had to issue an apology and everything. He was really like shunned from YouTube for quite some time.
Speaker 2:Wow, I thought it was just because he was like insensitive about it and like fucking around.
Speaker 1:I didn't know he issued a body. He issued an apology to the victims family.
Speaker 2:How do you not know that that's not okay like Well, he's a 22 year old guy.
Speaker 1:I mean, people have done dumber things. Two girls, one cop is a perfect example of that. Like a try imagine trying to get a business job after that. So you ate see a resume.
Speaker 2:There's your nice cream plain breakfaster. No, the ground floor.
Speaker 1:Mmm.
Speaker 2:Only test chocolate.
Speaker 1:Oh god. So the group moves closer to the figure and you can see that the man's just barely off the ground with a Rope around his neck. He is very nicely dressed and his bag is only feet away from him. His hands were still purple and that would appear as though it had only just happened. That was my kind of thing was I was like cut him down, like it felt like they were just standing around him, video taping him and they called the police and the authorities came, yeah, but I just felt like they could have tried. Like I feel like, if your hands are purple, you know, what does that mean I?
Speaker 1:don't, I don't know, I mean.
Speaker 2:I don't know, so might be time you're saying yeah, yeah but it appeared that it only just happened.
Speaker 1:Logan says that this is only barely out of the parking lot, and then they like, pan the camera over and you can see the parking lot still.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 1:The camera looks back to where the parking lot is, and they're still only very short distance away. They, of course, call the authorities, but the way they are, they're almost like excited.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It makes it look as if it could have been staged, and I did. I kind of felt like it was stage. He says multiple times that this is not staged. He's not gonna be able to monetize off of this. When the ambulance arrives to the parking lot at the entrance of the forest, they show the paramedic, who Logan says you can see very clearly has been there before. Yeah. The camera then scans the parking lot and he remarks about how there were children running around. He's like kids could have found him like yeah. It's later revealed that this was a real person. It was not staged.
Speaker 1:Logan had to issue an apology. He was said to have lost a three point five million dollar deal with Plainless pitchers, which is a movie production company. Logan was going to start in the movie as a fictional version of himself, but after facing a ton of backlash for uploading the video, he was even suspended from YouTube for a period of time. In his apology he acknowledges that he made a bad decision and upon the discovery, they should have put the camera down and never posted the video. He encouraged all of his fans who were sticking up for him online not to do so and he vowed to be a better person.
Speaker 2:That's a good move.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I like that actually to say don't stick up for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's like that. My actions are undefendable, is what he said.
Speaker 2:I mean, when somebody fucks up like that yeah, you're really, you know, you can, almost you can't. I mean you can judge them for their first indiscretion, but you really really got to judge them for what they do next.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know to me that.
Speaker 2:I think it was an asshole, but I think that the way that he handled it was was probably pretty good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean as well as a 22 year old guy could probably yeah, and you know what Consequences to me it might have seemed, especially in researching this, that in to him in that moment it was probably like you know, he's come to find this thing that this whole, you know, this whole suicide forest is based on. So it's kind of like he probably saw it as a bigger picture instead of a person.
Speaker 1:It's 100% so that's kind of the way I saw it was. He was like oh my god, like you know, this myth kind of thing came to fruition as, instead, of, this guy probably has a family somewhere. That's gonna see this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the reality of a person. Yeah, you know God. Up that morning got their bag ready, put on a nice suit went to the suicide forest, yeah, that's just barely made it outside of the like. Yeah, it's crazy.
Speaker 1:So he also said, more than anything, he wanted to extend an apology to the victim and his family. So, lastly, this is something I found on Reddit. This is not something that's verified, but it is, at very least, hitting the creepy mark. This submission is from someone who claims to be a tour guide in egg Yokohara. This person claims that they're from Australia originally and have been working in Japan for several years. Their username on Reddit is mammoth formal one. This is a little long, just so you know, before going into it. If you just want to leave and I'll finish, you just go inside smoke a little.
Speaker 2:I Back in seven minutes.
Speaker 1:So mammoth formal said that one day, while in the forest, they located a diary, and what I will read to you is allegedly an entry that was written while the author was still in the woods. So it begins egg Yokohara, or the sea of trees, is a forest in Japan that rests at the base of Mount Fuji. It is a Japanese national park that brings in thousands of tourists every year. It's also known as a suicide forest, because people have been ending their lives there for hundreds of years. Not everyone who comes here is a tourist, though. Many of those who come to this place seek a permanent solution to their temporary problems, including myself. It is a cursed place that serves to draw in the miserable and the damned in droves. The local Japanese say that ghosts or Yuri prowl the forest, hoping to lead those who go there Off the path and to their demise.
Speaker 1:My life has just been too overwhelming to cope with the death of my parents, I was working 80 hour weeks. This was partially to avoid the fact that my wife was banging another guy in our bed. The long hours served as the only way to remedy the crushing debt that buried me and prevented me from escaping my desperate home life. There really was no way out for me. I had no friends, nowhere to go. I could either be at home listening to my wife get pay-on did, or I could just deal with the purgatory of paperwork at my job. Unfortunately, it was a simple choice. One morning I woke up after a night of sleeping in my cold garage and decided I had had enough. I was going to do the world a favor than off myself. However, I was afraid. I have always been a coward. After extensive research of the easiest way to die, it was inconclusive. I decided that the only thing I could control was the venue in which I died. I had always wanted to visit Japan and, deep down inside, I hoped that the long journey would give me time to change my mind. Unfortunately, my mind remained unchanged and within the week I found myself on a jet headed to Tokyo. My mind raced. At this point I still didn't know if I would do it. Not having the means to get sleeping pills, knowing that guns are unheard of in Japan and being too much of a coward to use a knife, I decided on hanging. I figured it would be the most economical way to die. Maybe not the most pleasant, but who cares someone as pathetic as I didn't deserve a good death.
Speaker 1:Once I arrived in the country, the first order of business was to buy a sturdy bit of rope whilst I was still in the city. Now, all I had to do was locate a solid tree. This wouldn't be hard, considering the venue I had chosen for my demise. Next, I had to find transportation to the forest. This was by far the hardest part, considering that I know no Japanese whatsoever and many of the locals who spoke a sliver of English refused to take me once they realized that I had no camping gear. Unable to find direct transportation, I had to alter my plans. After nearly a day an entire day of searching I secured transportation on a rickety old bus to Kawaguchiko Hotel, which is located right off the trailhead that leads into Agi Okara. I Spent the bus ride planning exactly how I would spend my last few hours of life and I still had and ultimately I had decided that I would make it fast. I would follow the trail for approximately a mile and then leave the trail for another mile. This left me little time to change my mind and meant that they would most likely never find my corpse After being dropped off.
Speaker 1:I saw how vast the forest truly was. It was around noon local time, but the shadows cast by the forest seemed to block out all night from around it. There was also an engulfing feeling of emptiness creeping from the depths of the woods. But as I made my way into the forest, I saw dozens of signs that had all variations of the same message think about your family, get help. Death isn't the answer. I Got chills shortly after walking in. It says if the temperature drops by 20 degrees when you enter Agi Okara. Some say this is because of the trap spirits who left the path and can't find their way out, but I attribute it to the thick canopy cover of the trees. More of the signs I mentioned earlier line the trail. They bore messages that said never to leave the trail. Locals here know that the only people who leave the trail are those who wish to die as a result. Tourists stick to the well-mapped paths.
Speaker 1:I Continued to follow the trail. As I pressed on deeper into the woods, sadness overwhelmed me. It was as if I was standing in a black hole where no light could reach me. I knew that it was time to leave the trail. To my surprise, immediately upon leaving the trail, I heard soft Melody, melodic whispers. I turned back and took one last look at the trail, just for a moment, before pressing on the soothing voices back in me deeper into the forest, continuing through the sea of trees. The feelings of sadness and emptiness dissipated. I was no longer chilly. Instead, the cool breeze felt great, the leaves crunched under my boots, I could hear the sounds of water flowing in a small creek and the sweet whispers continued to draw me in.
Speaker 1:As the orange sun set below the trees, I found the forest to be peaceful. Forgetting about all of my problems at home, I knew that I wanted to stay here for eternity, shrouded and protected by the forest. After what felt like an hour of wandering, taking in the breathtaking sights, I found a tall tree and a small clearing. It was dusk by this point and I knew that this meant that the sun had set on me. It was time. I took a seat at the base of the tree and began tying the rope that I had bought in Tokyo into a tight noose. Next, I found a large rock that I could roll over to the tree. After doing this, I threw my noose over a low branch near the rock and secured it, stepping up onto the rock and placing my head through the noose like a necklace was the surest thing I had ever done. It erased all of my doubts and every mortal fear of death that I had. I knew I was safe here.
Speaker 2:Park.
Speaker 1:Finally, I stepped down. There was no peaceful ending, like I had anticipated. Instead, the world went dark and the forest turned cold once again. Hundreds of once-sweet voices began screaming simultaneously, wailing in despair. They told me I was a failure, that I deserved my fate and how I would never find my way out of this place. They tricked me. I fought with all my strength against the rope tied around my neck. As I thrashed and twisted violently, I saw a pale, thin woman with black hair and a white kimono sauntering towards me. My vision faded in and out and I knew that I was dying. Each time this happened, she got closer until finally, she placed her icy hands around my neck. As she let out a haunting wail, I pulled the news and desperately tried to alleviate the pressure on my neck, but it was no use. The ghostly woman grabbed me and was pulling me downwards, creating even more force on my throat. Everything went dark until suddenly I failed myself in excruciating pain on the cold forest floor. I looked up and saw that the rope had snapped. The woman in white was no longer there, but I was alone in the forest. It was frigid and dark.
Speaker 1:As I made my way to my feet and scrambled to find the trail. I searched and searched for hours to no avail. Afraid and alone in the forest, I gave up hope yet again. At one point I saw one of the telltale yellow signs and sprinted towards it, only to run full force into a hanged man as he dangled limply from the tree, the forest of the impact caused the corpse to plummet from the tree and crashed into the ground. As this happened, I made my way to my feet to run in the opposite direction, but failed myself, pulled to the ground by a cold, dead hand. Mouth agape. The decaying man clawed at my legs and tried to climb up my body, and in response to this, I delivered a swift, forceful kick to his face, and that allowed me to climb to my feet and begin running. I kept running for hours. The entire time I heard him screaming and running right behind me.
Speaker 1:I came to Aguilcarra to die, but now I wasn't going to allow that to happen. I knew that I would finally make it away from that horrific place. Finally, after hours of running, the footsteps behind me died out and I saw light. There appeared to be a woman holding a candle walking through the forest. I desperately wanted to run to her, but I knew that she had to be one of the ghosts I had encountered earlier. Instead, I made my way towards the only thing that I could still see from where I was, at the mountain. I continued to move through the forest at breakneck speed, hoping that I could just make it to the mountain and work my way around the edge until I found civilization, but that never happened.
Speaker 1:Currently, I'm somewhere in a system of caves. My legs are badly broken after a fall and I fear that I will not be able to crawl to safety because I'm so depleted. I have been in this forest for what feels like days. I'm not even sure if I'm alive anymore. What if I'm one of them? They're here. I can hear hundreds of whispering voices. They're here with me. I keep drifting in and out of consciousness, and each time I fall asleep, I feel the yuri's pale, icy hands pulling me down into damnation. I am throwing this diary into a small stream that is running next to me in hopes that somebody finds it. If someone finds this diary, please recover my body. I don't want to be like them. Do them to wander this forsaken place forever?
Speaker 2:Oh, I don't even know how to even react to something like that Fucked up eh. That just had so many layers. And then the note's going in through the tying of the noose around his neck and I'm like how far is this guy riding? And then like yeah, wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I mean this was something that was. It was alleged to have been found by a tour guide. I mean, who knows how real it really is?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's scary, whatever it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and just that. God, that was so scary. That line in there about what did he say was the most sure thing he's ever done. Yeah, yeah, that's heartbreaking.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's very scary, and the fact is that this isn't. It isn't all myths. Like some of it, this letter may not be real, but so many 100. Think about that. That's one every three days. Mm-hmm, that's crazy.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:So that is the Sea of Trees. How'd you feel about that story?
Speaker 2:I never knew. I only knew a little bit of the Suicide Forest. I kind of thought it was more mythological than as kind of a matter of fact.
Speaker 1:It's very real.
Speaker 2:I didn't realize how accurate of a name it is the Sea of Trees.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the horrifying thing is, if you look it up, you will see dead bodies in different, like various, stages of decay. Yeah, I was not ready for that, yeah, but I was just looking to see like the signs and I looked it up and it's just, it's so common that it's just right there.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:Like. It doesn't even say like, just so you know you're gonna see some shit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just imagine like you working there and being the staff and the park rangers and you have to get trained on suicide prevention. Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's just crazy. Wow, yep. So there, second handy-mandy, you got your spooky story.
Speaker 2:There you go and you oh, ha, ha.
Speaker 1:Okay, guys, happy Halloween, bye.