I had long heard of the only desert in Japan in Tottori Prefecture. I decided to drive up there this week and give it a look. It`s no desert. It is a giant hill of natural sand by the seashore. Apparently not actually dry enough to be a desert, they call the area sand dunes. There is so much sand that it forms a cliff over the shoreline. It is beautiful and clean though. And they have imported camels for tourists to ride around on.

One of the annual summer events in my rural Japanese neighborhood is soumen nagashi. Long pieces of bamboo are split in half to make a long slide down the back of pick up truck. Then cooked noodles, soumen, are dropped down the slide and all the neighborhood folks try to catch the noodles with chopsticks as they are pouring down the slide. The soumen noodles are delicious in cold sauce with some greens in it, and eaten out of a newly made bamboo cup. Afterward, there`s barbecue, beer, and fireworks for all.

Most Japanese people are cremated and their bones are removed from the ash with chopsticks by close family members and placed in an urn. There is a compartment for the urn under the family tombstone. Often there is one grave stone for a whole family with many urns placed under it. There are also places for candles, incense, and water on the grave.

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. Also on death people are given a second name by Buddhist priests. The name is held in a private shrine in the family`s home.

Here in rural Japan where I live many homes have graveyards on their property, but there is a 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! Here`s an interesting article about robo-graves! When technology and Death join forces!

During Obon, a three day holiday in mid-August, the spirits of the dead return to visit their families and friends.
Read my Obon post here.

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