Grave Circumstances

~As I continued to wander around the observation area, I came across a small graveyard behind a hidden temple. In Japan, most funerals are Buddhist and the bodies are cremated. Every year during the Obon festival, family members visit the grave markers/ashes of their ancestors:

^ Each grave marker is sometimes for an entire family, and sometimes for only one person. There are large shops in Japan that sell these for millions of yen; they're lined up outside the shops like cars at a Cary car dealership.

^ A typical grave marker with a Buddhist altar in front. There is incense on the small altar towards the bottom, and flowers that have seen better days. There is also a can of Orange Fanta. Perhaps that was the favorite drink of the deceased?

^ Next to another grave marker was this little family of Buddhas. They too have seen better days.

^ I think this is a temple, but perhaps it's a shrine. Sometimes it's difficult to tell the difference.

^ Near the temple doorway was what looked to be a massive wasp nest! I wonder why it hasn't been taken down yet?

^ So many minor things in Japan are works of art. This grate is an excellent example: its purpose is to let you walk across a shallow ditch. In America, it would probably be rusty steel, but in Japan it's a little picture of flowers. Even the manhole covers in the street have engravings like this.

^ This is another one of my favorite pictures, taken outside of the forest temple. A little orange-and-black beetle is relaxing on a beautiful blue flower.

~After leaving the observation point, my tour group was taken to a museum near a large hydroelectric dam. Stay tuned for pictures! ~Oyasumi.