After returning to Tokyo I needed a little walk around town just clear away some cobwebs and headed to the Aoyama cemetery, a 45 minute walk from home, to check out an area that lots of people had told me I should visit. It was a great day with typical spring weather and the road through the middle of the cemetery would be amazing when the cherry blossoms come out as the trees line every metre of the road.
The Aoyama cemetery was Japans first municipal cemetery and was opened in the 1870’s. There are also a number of foreigners buried in this cemetery.
One thing the Japanese really know how to do is build shrines and monuments to those that have passed on. The Aoyama cemetery had some huge pieces of inscribed stone bearing testimony to the lives of those that came before.
The Aoyama cemetery was Japans first municipal cemetery and was opened in the 1870’s. There are also a number of foreigners buried in this cemetery.
One thing the Japanese really know how to do is build shrines and monuments to those that have passed on. The Aoyama cemetery had some huge pieces of inscribed stone bearing testimony to the lives of those that came before.
The families of the departed tend to the graves and all of the graves were amazingly maintained. While I walked through the cemetery I saw people pruning trees, sweeping up leaves, and leaving offerings of beer and cigarettes.
In an Alfred Hitchcock moment a huge flock of crows started circling the cemetery and calling out to each other. They then began landing on some of the monuments, eyeing me intently – I decided that it was time to depart – the cemetery.
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