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My grandfather and father passed away around the same time six years ago. Last week we had the seventh memorial at the temple and all our relatives gathered together. In the Japanese Buddhist belief it is common to hold memorials for the deceased on the first year, third year, seventh year, 13^th year, 17^th year, and 50^th year. In the Buddhist belief, even a person who has done horrible things on earth will be absolved of all sin and be able to enter paradise once they completed 50 years of repenting. I don’t know if I will be alive to see my father’s 50^th memorial but I am hoping my children will continue the tradition.

At the temple where we had the memorial there was a very unusual ginko tree growing. The tree is very uncommon and is considered a national treasure. This ginko tree grows fruit on the tip of its leaves. Unfortunately we were not able to find any fruit this time around.

The picture I included is of a normal ginko tree. I remember as a kid I used to take a ball to the ginko tree and knock out all the fruit. I would then take them home and have my mom roast them for a snack. The only negative about ginko tress could be its pungent smell.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 6:11 PM and is filed under Travel into local japan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.