Obon is a three day Japanese holiday in mid-August where spirits return to their graves. During Obon week Japanese people all over Japan go to cemeteries to visit their ancestors’ graves, tidy them up, and leave behind all sorts of foods and drinks for the dead to enjoy.

There is no feeling of sadness or fear associated with Obon. It’s more a sense of appreciation for ancestors. Bon Odori is a festive Obon event where many people dance in unison to further show their gratefulness. At the end of Obon paper lanterns are lit in the evening and set afloat in rivers to guide the souls back to their heavenly home.

The above is a photo of a Japanese grave I took in Yamaguchi prefecture. Most Japanese people are cremated and their bones are removed from the ash with chopsticks and placed in an urn. There is a compartment for the urn under the family tombstone. There are also places for candles, incense, and water on the grave. The grave in my photo even has built-in flower vases.

The red name in the photo indicates that that particular family member is still alive. When the person dies the red paint will be removed.

Here’s an interesting article by the Cremation Association that details the steps of Japanese funeral rites and the problem of over-crowding cemeteries in Japanese urban areas. In Tokyo there’s so little space that there are cemeteries built on rooftops of office buildings!

Japanese word of the day: HAKA (ohaka) - “grave”.

Reiko is 3-D! This is some of the coolest fan art I’ve ever seen. It’s a 12 cm clay Reiko sculpture by Rika Suzuki.

You’ve gotta love these ears…