9 Jul 2022 3:34 pm
Yes, thanks.
After little over one month we'll be back home in Alaska.
It's fine here . . . just too hot !
Even with airco at home, in the car and in stores !
You just can't step outside without feeling choked !
Just 3 days ago we paid a monk (who, against all expectations, turned out to be a very nice guy) to perfom a ceremony for my wife's parents' death anniversary !
He does not charge anything . . . only donations !
There is a donation box where he is not present, a bunch of nameless envelops . . . you can just as well drop 1 yen or a million yen . . . no one will know !
We gave 100,000 yen . . . because he's such a nice guy !
He stood there in the sweltering heat ringing a bell and singing chants for over an hour !
There were we with our bells, rhythmically following his chants.
Crazy, if you ask me !
But the whole extended family was there . . . mainly for me . . . so . . . . . . . . . . .
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For me it was the first time.
They have this deep . . . I mean . . . real deep . . . maybe 150 yards or more deep shaft where they throw the bones of cremated dead.
It is required that the bones be crushed by the next-of-kin, before being thrown into the shaft.
My wife had to do that.
With a "holy" rock !
For this they have a sort of mausoleum (I made pictures that I will post in the "greetings from Japan" thread) where some families are allowed to throw the bones of their dear ones !
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And so I came to meet the "cemetery" cat, named Tora, I don't know the Kanji version !
The lucky bastard lived his whole life in such a beautiful, quiet suroundings !
Such a silence . . . full of green . . . far away from the everyday rat-race that characterizes Japan !
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You won't believe this . . . he got to be ----------------> 24 years old !
He looks quite **** up, really !
I'll go back at the soonest to make some picture of him, before he's gone !
Maybe tomorrow itself !