Important Buddhist festival

  The bon event of Sitennoji temple

It’s very quiet in town now because many offices, shops and restaurants are closed during bon festival. Bon festival is a special period when we welcome our ancestors’ souls returning home. Many people go back to their hometowns to spend time with their family members.
As for us, we decorate our family altar with flowers, food and drinks and invite a monk to read sutra.
On the final day that is usually 16th, August, we take our ancestors’ name plates kept on our altar during the festival to temple to send them off to the heaven.
At some temples or places such as Sitennoji, Nara park and Kyoto they have night events with a lot of lanterns and bonfires lightening the way to the heaven. After the event, autumn season is coming soon.

Happy Reunion! Obon

We’re having a Buddhist festival called Obon. Today I visited our family grave in Southern Osaka.
As it was a rainy today, it was not very hot. I cleaned our grave and prayed to our ancestors for our healthy and happy life.
I went there on the vernal equinox day, since then I’ve not been there so it was covered with grass.
It’s believed our beloved souls come home during Obon.
In fact it is a happy reunion.

お彼岸以来、お墓に来ていなかったので
夏草に覆われていた。　この夏があまりにも暑いので例年のお盆よりお参りの方の数が少ないように感じました。
父母に近況を報告して我が家族の安全と幸運を祈ってきました。

私はお盆を1年の一度の大好きな家族との再会の時と理解しています。

Not cut out for climbing mountains

It’s getting a little cooler because it’s windy today. In Japan, we have a holiday called ‘Mountain Day’ tomorrow. I’m sure many people are going to climb mountains. These days, many news about mountain accidents are reported.
When I was young, I would enjoy climbing mountains. But I prefer enjoying beautiful mountain views and breathing fresh mountain air to climbing risky and rocky slopes.
To tell the truth, I am a kind of acrophobic. Ha! Ha!
風が強くて少し涼しくなりました。明日は山の日で休日ですね。また多くの人が山に登っているはずです。崖から落ちたり迷ったりの事故のニュースが報道されています。山を楽しみに行って致命的な怪我をしたり命を落としたら意味ありません。私も若い頃は山岳部に所属したり登山によく出かけました。でも私は危ない岩山に登るより山の景色や新鮮な空気を楽しむ方が向いている。というのは私は高所恐怖症なんです。
若いときに大峰山に友人と登ったときその岩を登るのがハイライトだったんですが鎖を掴んで登る直前に写真を撮って貰ったら目的達成、「もう止めとく」と言ってその場の人たちをガッカリさせた。いや別にその岩を登らなくても横に迂回路があったから。