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Aangeliceus

Aangeliceus

Kitteh's Meow
FC/Leadership
Sadly, I will not able to finish my plans as I would like to. There has been a death in the family here in Japan and we'll be out of town starting from tomorrow to attend to family matters.

However, the majority of the reorganization is done. Please note that I've added some new areas and consolidated others. NO POSTS WERE DELETED. They were moved, most likely.

I lied, just a little... the only forum that got zapped 100% was "Everything Goes". It was dead and not much was happening there anymore.

I'll wrap up some other changes later on in the coming week.

Problems? Send me a PM and I'll get it taken care of.

Missing something: Use the search function.

Can't figure out where "New Posts" appear? Use the "New Posts" button on the NavBar at the top of the forum window.

Thanks!
AA
 
Happy thoughts for your family AA.
 
Oh shit man. Sorry to hear about the family issues. Good luck with that.

Thanks again for taking care of all this crap.
 
Thanks. It was my wife's grandmother. She had just turned 100 in May.

It will be a Buddhist ceremony. So, we'll be back in Tokyo sometime on Monday.
 
Aangeliceus said:
Thanks. It was my wife's grandmother. She had just turned 100 in May.

It will be a Buddhist ceremony. So, we'll be back in Tokyo sometime on Monday.
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Sorry to hear about your family. I wonder how different a Buddhist ceremony is in Japan compared to Taiwan.
 
No clue, really. I just heard that we'll be up all night "comforting the spirit of the dead" as part of the ceremony. Will be a first for me, for sure.
 
。。。　イーメル
 
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Sorry to hear about your loss Aang :/ Take care man
 
Thanks again everyone.

Most of the main event stuff is done as of this afternoon. Now we wait for 49 days before putting the remains in the family grave. By remains, I mean the left over "stuff" after getting cremated.

I won't go into the details of how it all works, but I have never been a witness to such an event. I can safely say, when I am dead.. bury me whole... :arg:

We're staying out here for a bit longer with the family.

~AA
 
Ohh now you have peeked my curiosity. Some cultures bury the dead next to their house. Which would freak me out. And some actually dig the remains up after 10 years or something like that and put the bones in an urn. Is it something like that?
 
Snuggle said:
Ohh now you have peeked my curiosity. Some cultures bury the dead next to their house. Which would freak me out. And some actually dig the remains up after 10 years or something like that and put the bones in an urn. Is it something like that?
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Spoilered for the "Ewww" factor.

In the majority of Japanese Buddhist funerals... The family attends the burning of the body, inside the box with all accessories included. It's a large list of things that are done... [Note: Cremation is not optional in Japan.]

Anyway, after the burning, family members, pick up the left over bone fragments and place them in a canister which then is taken to someone's house.

For the next 49 days, it stays there and is turned every 7 days for 7 weeks. After that, in a ceremony it moved to the family grave site. In this case, it is going to her husband's family grave which contains the remains of all relatives that have died in the past 60 or so years. The remains are never removed from the grave. We visit at certain intervals to burn incense and place new flowers. Additionally, we poor water over the headstones to offer water to the dead.

When we place the container in the grave, we place a "Passport" with an ancient currency. As the story goes: The ancient Japanese believe that after death, you have to cross a river to reach heaven. After you cross that river, you cannot return to the living world. However, in order to cross the river, you need to have the passport and the currency to pay the "toll". If the spirit does not have these items, they cannot cross the river and therefore stuck on the wrong side of the river.

For the 49 days, the memorial is kept at my wife's parents home which is open to people who wish to come by and say a prayer, light incense or just pay their respects. Incense is a major factor in Buddhism. My wife explained it, but I forgot.

The grave site is on a mountain, way out in the countryside. A very peaceful place.

The whole burning process and watching the coffin with her inside it, being put in the oven... just made me sick. We waited one hour while the burn occurred.
 
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