Magnetic compasses reportedly don’t work in the forest and steep paths have sent many to injury or death, despite the stone statues of Jizo Bodhisattva that are supposed to guard the traveler.
The forest was infamous as a place to end one’s life long before the discovery of the afterlife in 1997. Ken Takamura, a professor of behavioral science at the Medical College Research Institute of Tokyo and author of “Aokigahara-jukai: Forest of Death in the shadow of Mt. Fuji,” has said, “The problem in Japan is that there are more sites where people are exchanging suicide methods, looking for partners, than there are sites devoted to prevention.
“Now the suicide parties are organized. They pack in computers, terminals, satellite uplinks and they go online and synchronize their deaths with others around the country. And the forest, unfortunately, lures them.”
In Japan, the national government has declared the suicide problem an “epidemic that can’t be cured by medicine or relieved by public awareness.”
“Everyone knows that people are killing themselves left and right,” said Randall Levinson, a visiting scholar at Keio University’s International Center. “But they can’t do a thing about it. The problem’s gotten so bad there have been schools that have had to cancel classes — too many students killed themselves. It’s the siren call of the afterlife.”
It wasn’t a good night for Yamaguchi. Munroe counted five trips to the bathroom. She apparently never even remembered that he was there, or at least he so assumed from the fact that she never even glanced at the desk.
OK, well, I guess I never need to worry about that again, he thought to himself on maybe the second or third trip when he peeked into the bathroom and saw her perched over the toilet.
He went back to the computer and continued planning his trip for next month when she would be leaving town for a wedding and he thought he could take the trip to Egypt he’d always wanted. The website promised a living tour guide and a portable terminal with full Internet wireless access. Start in Cairo and the pyramids, then Karnak at Luxor, Valley of the Kings and finally Abu Simbel, all by riverboat and all for $500 per person. The living would die to get these kinds of prices, he thought to himself. Not that many of them are brave enough to go. With the instability of the Middle East since the discovery of the afterlife, Western tourism, at least among the living, had all but dried up.
He looked at the pictures again and thought of wife number one, Marlene, who turned him onto all things Egyptian, and also turned him off college professors who cheated on their husbands.
Next he checked his email again and found a response from AfterNet security.
From:
[email protected]To:
[email protected]Subject: Re: Missing persons inquiry
Date: December 19, 2004 2:32 a.m. MST
This is an automated response to notify you that we have received your inquiry. Please do not reply to …
So, nothing so far, but what else did he expect on a weekend.
He did, however, get an email from Bill Rybold.
From: (Bill Rybold)
[email protected]To:
[email protected]Subject: Good to meet you
Date: December 19, 2004 1:10 a.m. MST
Dear Alex,
Enjoyed meeting you at the reception. Hope I didn’t get you in hot water with your chief, but I think I probably raised your standing in the department.
By now, you suspect that I know your situation with the department. I know that your salary is actually coming out of an equipment budget because of the police union and I think that’s emblematic of not only the department’s view of you, but also the attitude of many government agencies and businesses. We disembodied — and yes, between you and me and others like us, I don’t hide my status — have to stand up for our rights, otherwise we run the danger of being marginalized. (Did you see The New Yorker article: “Dispossessed and disembodied”?)
Sorry, didn’t mean to get up on the soap box.
Now, I’m also sure that you know that I want to hire you, but you don’t know for what. Why do I require the services of a homicide detective? Well, I don’t require a detective, but I do need your brain (rubs hands and chortles maniacally). I need people who match a certain profile and have certain abilities to work for a start-up company, but I don’t want to go into the details now.
Also, your next step is to do some research on me, and I’d
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