I've Come Back From Shimane, My Hometown.

I had spent Obon holiday season in my hometown Matsue city, Shimane prefecture for ten days and just came back the day before yesterday by airplane.
I met my mother, my brother and my sister-in-law living in Matsue city.

Obon is a Buddhist festival to recognize ancestral spirits in Japan.
It is believed these spirits return to their families during the period.

We invited a monk to the house and asked him to recite a religious sutra for ancestral spirits.

Before my father passing away, we had never invited a monk for Obon ceremony, nor had we been such a religious family at all.

During this Obon season, I took a ten-day-off from my office, adding a five-day-paid-holiday to my company’s predetermined five-day-Obon-holiday for every employees.

I stayed there so long that I could have really been relaxed.

Left: my mother, Center: my sister-in-law, Right: my brother

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