Visit to an old ice cave in Aokigahara Forest
by StarkUrbex_ on October 5 2022 11:11 hr CE(S)T Shortlink to this report: [ https://urbx.be/hjxj ]
Finding out the location |
easy |
Access |
very easy |
Safety |
safe |
Risk of being seen |
low |
General condition of the place |
very good |
Traces of vandalism |
none or very few |
Good place for taking pictures? |
good |
Did you see other people? |
none or very few |
Visit date December 24 2019 at 12 hr
Visit duration 5 hours
Aokigahara, also known as Sea of Trees, is a forest area of approx. 35 square kilometers on the slopes of Mount Fuji in Japan. The forest grows from the lava soil from the last eruption of the volcano (864 CE) and is therefore very lush. Lava soil is very nutritious.
The forest is mostly known as a ghost (Yūrei in Japanese) forest, because of the many people who have ended their life there. It’s not a typical urbex location therefore but many abandoned camps can be found in the forest and aslo the ice cave I visited.
It’s said that there was a bestseller novel “The novel Nami no Tō” that made the place notorious, but Aokigahara has been associated with death for a long time. During the 1900 century its said that the mythical practice of senicide (ubasute) was practiced here. “The novel Nami no Tō” (Tower of Waves) was written by Seichō Matsumoto in 1961.
Because of the tragic reputation the forest got there are many signs pleading with people to seek help instead of making this final act against themselves in the forest.
I went to Aokigahara in the winter of 2019 to visit the forest and climb in an old ice cave there. The forest was beautiful even if it’s a little bit hard to walk on the lava soil (it is very uneven). I didn’t feel anything different from any other forest and it was a nice trip into nature. I even saw some deer. Even if I didn’t see anything unusual, I thought about all those people who decided to end their life here. It’s very sad and there is ALWAYS a better solution then ending your life, I feel.
The ice cave was magnificent, although a little bit tricky to climb down to it during wintertime. The walls of the cave were glittering like diamonds and there was a thick ice floor that we walked on. Overall, this was a great experience that I would want to be without.
I will post a video from my climb in the ice cave soon. :)
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