Japanese Culture for 100 yen ($1)

There are two major religions in Japan: Shinto and Buddhism. Although, I don’t know a lot about them, esp. Shinto, I will try to convey in this and future Blogs some of the things I come across.

On our Misawa tour to the Buddhist temple there were many grave sites.
These are the ones for those with $$. Those who don’t have $$ have them inside in a smaller form.

By Japanese law, or maybe it’s an imperial mandate, all the dead are cremated. The grave sites are for whole families, not individuals. They pay a lot of respect to the dead/ancestors. There was a recent Oban festival right when we PCS’d here. They go to the grave and take there ancestors home to partake in some of the joy’s of life again, i.e. celebrations, food, etc. Then they return them to the temple. They also place large sticks at the grave sight at certain anniversaries of the ancestor’s death, like at year 1, 3, 7 etc. (not too sure about that part).

So there is lesson one, a bit shaky on details but hopefully enough to keep it interesting.*once I get my nice SLR camera back from the slow boat I hope to be renewed in my photography and blogging spheres.