The Aokigahara Suicide Forest
The Aokigahara forest has the unfortunate distinction as the world’s second most popular place to take one’s life. The first is the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Since the 1950s, depressed Japanese citizens have wandered in, and at least 1000 of them haven’t wandered out. In 2002, 78 bodies were found within the forest, exceeding the previous record of 74 in 1998. In 2003, the rate climbed to 100, and in recent years, the local government has stopped publicizing the numbers in an attempt to downplay Aokigahara’s association with suicide. In 2004, 108 people killed themselves in the forest. In 2010, 247 people attempted suicide in the forest, 54 of whom completed the act.
Japanese spiritualists believe that the suicides committed in the forest have permeated Aokigahara’s trees, generating paranormal activity and preventing many who enter from escaping the forest’s depths. Complicating matters further is the common experience of compasses being rendered useless by the rich deposits of magnetic iron in the area’s volcanic soil.
Due to the vastness of the forest, desperate visitors are unlikely to encounter anyone once inside the so-called “Sea of Trees,” so the police have mounted signs reading “Your life is a precious gift from your parents,” and “Please consult the police before you decide to die!” on trees throughout the forest.
The place has long been associated with death. Ubasute, literally translates to ”abandoning an old woman.” Ubasute may have been practiced there into the 19th century, and the forest is reputedly haunted by the Yurei (angry spirits) of those left to die.
(via neil-gaiman)
The green guitar is the handiwork of a farmer named Pedro Martin Ureta, who is now 70. He embedded the design into his farm many years ago, and maintains it to this day, as a tribute to his late wife, Graciela Yraizoz, who died in 1977 at the age of 25. “It’s incredible to see a design that was so carefully planned, so far below,” says Gabriel Pindek, a commercial pilot for Argentina’s Austral Lineas Aereas. “There’s nothing else like it.”
(via scrapscallion)
A downward lightning negative ground flash captured at 7,207 images per second.
“I mean, everything I’m doing today, I imagined when I was standing at bus stops with my guitar on my back. And when I sat at the back of the bus, on me way to the city, to go play music on the street - everything I imagined at the back of that bus, is what I’m doing now.”
You know, I love making music right now. I love living the gypsy life, and I will do that until it no longer nourishes me. And when it doesn’t, I’ll take a break. Because when the soil goes fallow, you must leave the field for a couple of years to regain its nutrients and its strength.
That’s why I called the album “Rhythm and Repose.” It was very much a title of my age because I’ve realized recently that rest is equally as important as work. You don’t work, work, work, and then take some rest. You work, you rest; you work, you rest. The imagination is our greatest - it’s our greatest ally.
I mean, everything I’m doing today, I imagined when I was standing at bus stops with my guitar on my back. And when I sat at the back of the bus, on me way to the city, to go play music on the street - everything I imagined at the back of that bus, is what I’m doing now.
So the imagination is a very, very powerful thing and it, literally, invents the path before you.
— Glen Hansard, NPR interview
After his wife Janet died in 1995, British farmer Winston Howes began planting trees in her memory. Seventeen years and 6,000 oak trees later, Howes has a six-acre field with a perfect heart-shaped cutout, pointing in the direction of Janet’s hometown. If that’s not the sweetest damn tribute you ever saw, then screw you.
The heart clearing was a secret until balloonist Andy Collett flew over the field, because apparently the U.K. is a steampunk paradise where people jaunt around in their airships. Collett took pictures with his camera, which undoubtedly looked like this, and now Howes’ secret is out. But we kind of have a feeling Janet wouldn’t mind everyone knowing about her arboreal memorial. It’s like posting those flowers your boyfriend sent you on Instagram, times a billion.
Make something today. Don’t think about making something. Don’t plan out how to make something. Don’t tell someone you are going to make something. Actually make something today.
There are lots of people out there that look at people who have made something, directed a film, written a book,…
I’m not sure what it is, whether it’s the prevalence of texts as opposed to conversations, or emails instead of snail mail, but it seems like the age old tradition of love letters has bitten the dust these days. I get it though… Why wait for someone to receive something days from now and pay postage for it when you could just text them and have them know immediately? Why take the time to put something down when you could just go see them?
Why write it out when you will probably just say it all out loud eventually anyways… Right?
But have you ever noticed how different you sound in the moment than when you think something out, make yourself nervous with second guessing? Have you ever thought about what that person would think, reading something and imagining you sitting there writing it and thinking about them?
Have you ever thought about picking every word you write just so you could sit and imagine them smiling, even though you won’t see it when it happens?
See, it’s that sort of drawn-out, nail-biting anticipation that made our grandparents weak in the knees. It’s why their favorite love letters ended up dog-eared and stored away, tied up in boxes and tucked into diaries to be read and reread. Famous love letters have launched battles, inspired the receivers to paint masterpieces or find their moment of ‘Eureka!’. Some have even been published in books for future generations to devour.
Because you see, there were no Skype sessions back then, no texts or emails to be sent at all hours of the day. And there were just some things you didn’t want said over the phone, out loud so that wherever you were the whole world could hear.
So maybe, just once this year, send a love letter thru the mail. Doesn’t matter if it’s to your mother, or maybe an old friend you don’t see often. Anyone who would appreciate it. There are even some great programs to send mail to our servicemen overseas, just so they have something nice to read.
Just write down what you’re thinking about them, lick that stamp and put it in the mail knowing that, eventually, it should make its way into their hands.
And then smile with the knowledge that soon, someone somewhere, will be smiling because of you.
