Aug 13 2008
Obon phenomena
Accidentally slept through most of today. I got up around noon and went over to the school to see if I had any mail, then came back, read for a while, and went back to bed. When I woke up again it was seven. Apparently I was tired.
I went out to get groceries. The graveyard is three blocks from the apartment, but I could smell the incense from just outside. The graveyard was crowded with people setting out flowers, incense, and lanterns and cleaning the graves. The lanterns are pretty, but everyone seemed to be extinguishing them before they left. I wonder if that’s normal, or just something they were doing this year because it’s been so dry. Someone towards the corner closest to the closed grocery store was burning some very good pure sandalwood incense, which doesn’t seem to be common – I think it’s usually blended with aloeswood. A little girl pointed a flashlight at me and said “stop!” in English, because she knew the word and wanted to say it.
