O-Bon Festival

Unlike Western countries, Japan has its festival of the dead in the middle of summer, not October.
In the middle of August, the spirits of the departed are supposed to journey back to earth and they are guided to their former homes by their families. When it comes time to naff off again, they are guided on their way by bonfires on hillsides, etc. (or I suppose they could be called O-Bonfires!).
Kyoto has the most famous of these bonfires, which are made in the shape of giant Kanji letters, a boat and a large shrine gate, or Torii. Last year, we were invited by Kaori, Reiko’s sister, to view the bonfires from the roof of the office where she works. It was indeed a splendid sight, but a bit tame after the fireworks of a week before.

Because the spirits return to the old family home each year, their descendents have to make their way back to their old hometown in order to welcome the spirits and send them away again. This results in a mass exodus of idiots from their new homes in the big cities, to the town they were born in the middle of nowhere. This in itself wouldn’t make them idiots, but the fact that they all set off at exactly the same moment and thus clog up every major transportation route in the country, must surely qualify them as a right bunch of numpties. I was watching the news tonight and the traffic jams around Tokyo and Osaka stretched for thirty kilometers in every direction. The return traffic snarl-up is expected on Tuesday next week, so I guess pollution and smog levels will peak around then.

The positive aspects of the festival are the lovely sight of lots of little lantern boats being floated down streams and rivers, Bon-Odori dances, which are very nice, and of course the afore mentioned bonfires.