The most terrible place on our planet: you certainly wouldn’t want to be there!

It is this poster that meets the forest at the foot of Mount Fuji on the Japanese island of Honshu. It is also called the “suicide forest” and is considered a kind of sad landmark in Japan. The forest got its name for a reason: in 2003, 105 bodies were found in Aokigahara. This number exceeds the previous year’s record (78). In 2010, there were 200 suicide attempts, of which 54 were carried out. In the 19th century, poor Japanese families left old people and children who could not be fed in this forest to certain death. Many legends and rumors circulate in the forest: the superstitious Japanese readily believe in stories of spirits and ghosts inhabiting these places. What is the scariest place in the world? Residents will not hesitate to respond.

The forest occupies about 3,000 hectares of land, boxwood and pines grow here in a dense wall, perhaps because of this Aokigahara is called the “sea of ​​trees”. The ground is covered in moss, and the deeper you go into the forest, the colder it gets. You should not stray from the path – it is easy to get lost in the forest. They say that if you take only ten steps, you’ll come across other people’s belongings: bags, plastic bottles and packets of pills.

Convenience stores do not sell funds that could be used to settle accounts with life. Employees of shops located near the roads leading to Aokigahara unequivocally distinguish from the crowd tourists who have arrived here with the intention of committing suicide. According to them, they look confused, don’t meet anyone’s eyes, and for some reason the men wear three-piece office suits.

The forest, as one of the scariest places on earth, was also popular in media culture. One of the most popular books on the Aokigahara phenomenon is Wataru Tsurumi’s Complete Guide to Suicide, published in 1993, where the author characterizes the forest as “a beautiful place to die”. The author of the book describes in detail 10 modes of suicide, including hanging, electrocution and self-immolation.