The First Stop of the First Day to Kanazawa

We headed out last week for Kanazawa. J-Mom's cousin's husband is the head priest at a temple and J-Pop hired him to handle some kind of ceremony for J-Mom's father (He passed away four years ago). From my very limited knowledge of Buddhism, I think the spring solstice is one of the days when you go to the cemetery and pay your respects. I'm guessing that's why we went around March 21st.

Here is a view of the cemetery at the nearby temple. This layout is Japanese style. Nobody is buried here. Cremated remains are kept under the stones.

Here is a picture of Tokuji-san's wife's (J-Mom's aunt) marker. He hadn't been there, yet, so we washed it off, put in some fresh incense, flowers, and water.

Here is another view of the cemetery's layout.

The J-Units straightening up the appearance of Noriko's great grandparents' markers.

Our next stop was the Ooyabe (our neighborhood name) Cemetery. This cemetery has two functions. One we already know and the other is as a park. There's this huge grassy square with a fountain in the middle. In the spring, many people with their families congregate here to enjoy the weather. You can't really see many graves from here, because of strategically places shrubs. The entire area is finely manicured. The only thing that breaks the serene scene is the almost constant sound of crows cawing. The cemetery is located within a ring of wooded hills so plenty of birds call it home. Considering crows are supposed to be the spirits of the deceased it's kinda fitting in a disturbing way.

So, you carry this little bucket and ladle to the headstone, wash it off, put some flowers in a vase, and light some incense.

Here we are posing with J-Pop's father's grave. He's the only family member at this cemetery.