Aokigahara is a fantastic mystical forest that spans 24 square kilometers across the Northwest base of Mt. Fuji.
I was raised in a naturalist adventuring family in Canadas far north near the Arctic. Before moving to Japan over 20 years ago, I had journeyed over 6 years in deep wildness on every continent. Such as the Amazonian rainforest of French Guiana, where I had been on assignment for three months, in my profession as a professional photographer. My first few months in Japan were spent in the suburbs of Kanagawa, Prefecture just outside of Tokyo, with my wife Manami and her family. The forested mountains in the area are beautiful and lush with an abundance of hiking trails, but after that first few months, I was getting antsy for some tent time and exploration. Already I had acquired my Japanese driver's license and purchased my Honda XRV 650 Africa Twin. After a few days of planning, I was off to Mt. Fuji, where my family had booked me into a campground. The campground was crowded, I was better off camping on the hiking trails of Kanagawa, I checked out after two nights. Luckily the morning I had decided to check out, I met a kind Japanese gentleman who spoke English, explaining to me that it was permitted to camp around the forest of Mount Fuji. After half a day of searching, I found my new campsite on a well laid out hiking trail, with a small stream nearby, on the Northwest base of Mt. Fuji, in what I was later to learn is named (Aokigahara - The Sea Of Trees). That night I slept calmly in the natural world. In the a.m. I woke unusually late well after sunrise, due to the lack of light coming through the trees at my chosen campsite. After breakfast, I thought I would do a little hiking through the beautiful forest after a few steps off the trail quickly realizing the ground beneath me was unstable. Carefully I kneeled and spread my body out on the ground, I found I was walking on (peat moss) similar to rich tundra peat moss, surprisingly with pockets of lava rock holding the trees upright. Realizing I was in a natural forest with the trees in lava planting pots all around me I backed out carefully, continuing my hike on the well-groomed trail.
20 years later I still am using the same trail, when entering the forest while leading a Mount Fuji Japan Photo Tour. The biggest difference now is the trail is busy with Japanese school children, on fields trips, they are being educated on the forests natural beauty, and facts not the folklore.
In the year 864 was the great eruption of the Jougan era of Mt. Fuji creating this fantastic Aokigahara Jukai, “the sea of trees,” spreading across the Northwest foot of mt. fuji. The Aokigahara forest trees grow in natural volcanic planting pots, in rich peat moss. It spans over 3000 hectares, the forest comprising of primary of hemlock fir, Japanese cypress, plus other evergreen trees, and broadleafs such as the longstalk holly, Japanese andromeda, oak, Fuji cherry, and maple. There is no accurate count of the number caves some with ice throughout the forest and area. The forests popularity is growing among nature photographers, fine art photographer with its incalculable mythological forms appearing from tree roots and moss growing in around and over volcanic lava.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions; you may have.

We offer day trips or longer to the Mt. Fuji area. We also offer workshops to over 400 of Japans 6,852 Islands.