April 13, 2013
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Today was Auntie's funeral. It involved a priest from Nishi Honganji Temple who came in dressed like a Kabuki actor. He proceeded to chant us a few Sanskrit Sutras which no one understands, but I suppose such recitations provide a mysterious touch. Nanmanbaos namanbaos, namanbaos.... Then he sang some slightly more understandable sermon from a book and than said a few of his own depressing words. After another round of Sanskrit and a bit of incense it was off to the crematorium. One of Auntie's daughters was photodocumenting the whole thing. The body was covered with flowers and then everyone got their turn at having a last picture taken with Grandma. Good thing Grandma was smiling...
I had been to that crematorium before, and remembered the chef very well from when I had our family bones rebaked, but that is another story. We could see that Auntie had done up quite nicely when her cookie sheet came out of the oven, and the chef had a fine time giving an osteopathic lecture and praising the sturdiness of her bones. There is one bone from the base of the neck that supposedly looks like Buddha in prayer, and after making several .jpg files of the skeleton, Auntie's daughter got shots of this bone from the front and back, and then a diagonal shot that was recommended by the chef. I managed not to laugh, but it was getting kind of funny in both respects of the word.
Sonny B just happened to be in Kurume the day of Auntie's funeral. The occasion was a hoji memorial service for his wife's grandpa, and I felt badly to have to pull him away from his own family business, but there was nothing to be done for it. We don't have many relatives, so everyone who showed up was appreciated. We also got to meet the older daughter's "intended," which was nice. At the age of 60 she doesn't want to be alone anymore. The fellow looks kind of like Stephen Fry in his thinner days. Seems like a nice guy.
