May They Rest In Peace

So here's a post I've wanted to do for a while, but I shied away from it because it seems a little....morbid.  Also, I hesitated to get the photos necessary because it seemed....disrespectful and....morbid.  But as I'm struggling for topics these days I decided to go ahead.  Also I read this very interesting article that cleared up a lot of the questions I had about the topic.

So please excuse any of this post that may be in poor taste because I think many of you will find it very interesting.

So what am I talking about? 

Cemeteries. 

There are a lot of cemeteries around and about, including several in our neighborhood.  They are different from American cemeteries, namely in that no one is actually buried in them.  Here, almost everyone is cremated.  But relatives will put up little shrines that look similar to headstones.  I believe most of these are neighborhood, or possibly family cemeteries.  As with many American cemeteries, some stones are new, and some are very old.

a cemetery near our house

You often see flowers around the stones and sometimes you even see drinks, or in the case of the one below, a little tray of food bowls.  And a tray to burn incense.


see the bowls on the ground, bottom right

One of the most interesting things (to me, at least) is how often you see beer cans placed at the stones.  I can only presume it's put there because the dearly departed really enjoyed a good brewski.  I really don't think it's vandalism.  It seems very deliberate. 




note the beer cans

 As I said, some of the stones are very old and little more than rocks but the newer, elaborate graves actually have a compartment underneath to store the ashes.  I also noticed wooden boards (they look like skis with writing on them) at a lot of the graves but I have no idea what those are.  My theory is, that they serve as family information for a collection of graves that may not have inscriptions in the stones, as you see in the photo below.

skis are down at the end

old stones collected by themselves

my assistant photographer and some old statuary

I'm almost positive this is a headstone store close to our house. 
it has the stones inside.  and no, I can't read it.

You will (unfortunately) often see little statues with red cloth caps on them, as in the photo below.  It's my understanding that these are memorials to children who have passed away.

this is a rather large cemetery not too far away
(it's next to the gravestone store)

And (even more unfortunately) you will often see rows of the red-capped statues together.  Like the photo below, except that these don't have the red caps so I'm not sure they are child memorials.

same large cemetery

And lastly, some of the inscribed stones have kanji (writing) that is colored red.  When a family has a stone inscribed they will often put every ones name on there, even those who are still living.  It's less expensive to have it all done at once.  Then they'll color the names of the living red, as you see in the photo below.

same cemetery

So, there you go.  I was a little concerned that I (and my stroller) would be run out of one of these cemeteries but the few people who saw me didn't seem to mind that I was there taking photos.