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What's up people! Im Kiel and prepare for your injection of japanese culture here, in "Control Otaku Japan".
Well folks, I think most of you know what is this show about but if you are new let me explain you.
Here in "Control Otaku Japan" we talk about everything related to Japan
I think it's pretty obvious judging by the name of the show, anyway.
And the topic suggested the previous video and that much of you chose through facebook was the Aokigahara Forest or better known as the Sea of Trees
or much better known as the forest of suicides.
First of all I want to let you know that I'm not a professional on the subject, so I can say something that is not entirely true or just wrong, anything I'll put an annotation to the video.
Surely if you watched our video about 10 Curiosities from Japan you will remember we spoke about Mount Fuji.
That mountain that has a height of 3770 meters and is the largest in Japan...yeah, I still remember.
Well the fact is that at the foot of the volcano we can see a forest of about 35-square-km, but obviously it is not a common forest because for something is called the forest of suicides.
To understand better why this name we need to go back to 19th century at the feudal Japan, for these times was very common lack of food in the homes of the poorest families because of the different battles that took place.
Another major problem were disease and epidemics, unfortunately in that time the drug development was almost nil, and this was detrimental to the point that the smallest illness could cause death.
The truth is that low-income families did not have many options, so many decided to leave childrens and the elderly to their fate... and guess where... in Aokigahara forest.
That is why many claim that the forest is cursed by the people who died there, but there are others who say that the forest would have a relationship with the demons of Japanese mythology
but that would be a more spiritual version, the fact is that many people actually died in the forest.
In 1950 they did a search where they found about 500 bodies, suicide being the cause of death.
From 1980 to 2000 there has been an average of 70-80 deaths per year, but is likely to be many more, remember that this forest is immense.
Annually about 300 workers decide to go to find bodies that have not been found by visitors of the place.
One of the last figures were 54 suicides in 2010, the local government decided that no longer will be given the numbers of suicides to avoid somehow relate the forest with suicides, although we all know this is not going to help much, right?
Well, if you did not know this forest is a pretty touristy place, anyone can go and enter but this is not at all recommended because it is very possible that you get missed
that's why it was decided to place several warning signs, but if you want to enter you can enter without problems.
And some of the things you can find in the forest ranging from clothing to bones and bodies hanging from the neck by a rope.
There is also the myth that the forest is above a magnetic iron deposit, in that places objects like compasses or GPSs stop working, so we have one more reason to not enter to the forest.
Some suggest that the fame of "place of suicide" is because in 1960 were published a novel called "Nami no Tou", in the end two lovers committing suicide in the forest.
In addition to this we add that in 1993 were published "The Complete Manual of Suicide", a guide that lists different ways to die in categories considering their effectiveness, etc.
Well this manual suggests the Aokigahara forest as an ideal place to commit suicide, and in fact were found copies of the guide along with some bodies.
I think there is nothing more to say about the forest but I would like to ask if you dare to venture into the forest, leave me your comments about this and the overall video below.
And here finish this video of "Control Otaku Japan", if you like it I would greatly appreciate your thumb up and If you want me to talk about a specific topic you can leave it in the comments below.
and if this is the first video of us you see I invite you to subscribe to keep on top of all our updates, also you can follow us on our social networks facebook and twitter.
I'm Kiel and see you in the next video, bay!