Crammed together are magazines and novels, art books and technical treatises. In an era of increasing Internet book sales, stream of people are drawn to actual bookstores, in search of unexpected encounters. The bestsellers on display provide a glimpse of contemporary Japan. Books teaching "self-improvement" attract crowds of office workers on their way home; other shoppers, worn out by the daily grind, find themselves in the "spirituality" book section. All are wanderers in a forest of print.

When people die, they go "to the mountain". So holds the folklore in the Tohoku (northeastern) region of Japan, referring to Mt.Osore, in Aomori Prefecture. During the national holidays in May, pilgrims travel to this holy place from all over the country. Some, like a couple who lost a child, go there ritually. Others try to communicate with deceased loved ones via a necromancer. Still others are tourists, there to collect a certificate. The bleak landscape matches the emotional desolation of many of the visitors. We spend 3 days with folks on the borderline between life and death.