Walk Through the Cemetery

One of the first things I noticed upon arriving at our apartment in Miyazaki was the fact that we live near a cemetery. It's just down the road from our house. It caught my attention because the headstones are large and quite closely set together. It looks like a mound of stone from our apartment on the third floor. The cemetery in Payson has hundreds of headstones, but they are spread quite far apart, so this was a change for me.

These headstones are large and elaborate. Some have their own little walkway area and "shelve-like" benches to set flowers and incense. Some are nicely polished, while others are cracked and covered with moss.

I'm definitely not positive on this, but I believe most people are cremated once they have passed away. The family members can then decide what to do with the ashes, whether keep them, scatter them, or bury them. I've read that many who choose to bury the ashes have a family plot, rather than individual ones. I believe this would mean all the ashes are placed in the grave together. I also read that once a family member dies, oftentimes the headstone will have the spouse's name put on as well, because it is much cheaper to do it this way than to wait and have it written when the spouse dies. To differentiate between the living and dead on the headstone, the living name is covered in red ink until that person has passed on.

Again, I'm not sure how true that is, and I haven't seen any red markings in this particular cemetery, but I found that to be fascinating.