can't believe it's been a year...
today(well...yesterday now haha), was my grandma's 1st year memorial service thingy.
I know i've been babbling a lot about shopping but it's because I felt like trying to look nice for it!
But anyways, I woke up at 9 and got ready since we were leaving at 10. Kevin arrived and my grandpa, kevin, and I piled into my uncles car and headed off into the rain down to East LA where Konkou kyou (the church) and Evergreen cemetary are located. My mom couldn't come because she had to work :(
First we stopped at Haru florist to get flowers for the graves, and ran into one of my old classmates Cheryl (she was in Kevin's year...barely remembers either of us, even though she and her friend weren't very nice to me in elementary school -_-' )
We arrived at the church and my Auntie Yoko and Uncle Roland were already there, so we waited for my Uncle Jon and Auntie Yasuko to show up and shuffled inside the building. We had to wait for Tsuyuki Sensei to get ready (put on his white robes and everything) and...he took a really long time! haha. It turns out he had a call while he was getting dressed from one of his parishioners.
So, he started and did all the chants and everything, and halfway through the lights in the auditorium part (where we were) turned off, though at least not in the shrine area where he was doing stuff, so he didn't even notice till he turned around XD The rites ended with the usual offering of a sacred branch with the little paper strip tied to it.
He finished the memorial rites, and then gave a little sermon thing about how the mitama (erm... i guess you could call it the spiritual energy/soul) of the departed still can be seen influencing things in the material world. He talked about how the church parking lot had been inundated with homeless, but that now they're all gone, and how he'd helped them and that many of them now had jobs, with a funny anecdote about how one of them had given him a turkey for thanksgiving, and he'd told his parishioners about it, and how none of them had ever given him a turkey (with an added, don't send 100 turkeys flying at me for thanksgiving) thus showing that by treating everyone with respect no matter where they come from, and not taking people for granted will lead to positive things (...like the homeless being grateful to him for his help and trying to show it). He also talked about how a bunch of his parishioners have been having things like surgeries and stuff, and how they were positive about it and he felt it is because of the influence of the mitama of ancestors and such.
After Sensei was finished, we went over to the cemetary and put flowers at my great grandparents on my grandma's side's grave, and the grave that she and my great grandma on my grandpa's side are buried.
Once we finished Auntie Yoko and Uncle Roland had to leave, and the rest of my family headed off to Oomasa in Little Tokyo to eat lunch. On the way my grandpa was pointing out places(like Hancock park where he used to fish as a kid) and giving little stories(like how my grandma had walked all the way from Jtown to the church when she got lost when she was 7...which is pretty far away from each other btw) since he and my grandma had grown up there. We arrived at the restaurant and had to wait for Sensei to show up, so Kevin and I took a walk around and took a quick stop in Jungle Anime before heading back. The food was nummy as usual, and upon leaving Sensei came over to our table (the group was split into two tables) to say goodbye and said that I'd "caught a really handsome dude" lmao! ...and that at first he was trying to figure out when I'd gotten a brother, to which my aunt said that when you're together long enough people start looking like each other -.-'
after that my family split up and headed home, and...i guess i'll write up the rest of my weekend some other time :)
all in all, it was a pretty ok morning/afternoon, though i realised how much i still miss her...or at least before she started being really cruel towards the end...
the picture of my grandma that we use for the memorial things, and that is on her cremation box thingy
i wonder how old it is (it looks pretty old). reminds me of when i was little...
I know i've been babbling a lot about shopping but it's because I felt like trying to look nice for it!
But anyways, I woke up at 9 and got ready since we were leaving at 10. Kevin arrived and my grandpa, kevin, and I piled into my uncles car and headed off into the rain down to East LA where Konkou kyou (the church) and Evergreen cemetary are located. My mom couldn't come because she had to work :(
First we stopped at Haru florist to get flowers for the graves, and ran into one of my old classmates Cheryl (she was in Kevin's year...barely remembers either of us, even though she and her friend weren't very nice to me in elementary school -_-' )
We arrived at the church and my Auntie Yoko and Uncle Roland were already there, so we waited for my Uncle Jon and Auntie Yasuko to show up and shuffled inside the building. We had to wait for Tsuyuki Sensei to get ready (put on his white robes and everything) and...he took a really long time! haha. It turns out he had a call while he was getting dressed from one of his parishioners.
So, he started and did all the chants and everything, and halfway through the lights in the auditorium part (where we were) turned off, though at least not in the shrine area where he was doing stuff, so he didn't even notice till he turned around XD The rites ended with the usual offering of a sacred branch with the little paper strip tied to it.
He finished the memorial rites, and then gave a little sermon thing about how the mitama (erm... i guess you could call it the spiritual energy/soul) of the departed still can be seen influencing things in the material world. He talked about how the church parking lot had been inundated with homeless, but that now they're all gone, and how he'd helped them and that many of them now had jobs, with a funny anecdote about how one of them had given him a turkey for thanksgiving, and he'd told his parishioners about it, and how none of them had ever given him a turkey (with an added, don't send 100 turkeys flying at me for thanksgiving) thus showing that by treating everyone with respect no matter where they come from, and not taking people for granted will lead to positive things (...like the homeless being grateful to him for his help and trying to show it). He also talked about how a bunch of his parishioners have been having things like surgeries and stuff, and how they were positive about it and he felt it is because of the influence of the mitama of ancestors and such.
After Sensei was finished, we went over to the cemetary and put flowers at my great grandparents on my grandma's side's grave, and the grave that she and my great grandma on my grandpa's side are buried.
Once we finished Auntie Yoko and Uncle Roland had to leave, and the rest of my family headed off to Oomasa in Little Tokyo to eat lunch. On the way my grandpa was pointing out places(like Hancock park where he used to fish as a kid) and giving little stories(like how my grandma had walked all the way from Jtown to the church when she got lost when she was 7...which is pretty far away from each other btw) since he and my grandma had grown up there. We arrived at the restaurant and had to wait for Sensei to show up, so Kevin and I took a walk around and took a quick stop in Jungle Anime before heading back. The food was nummy as usual, and upon leaving Sensei came over to our table (the group was split into two tables) to say goodbye and said that I'd "caught a really handsome dude" lmao! ...and that at first he was trying to figure out when I'd gotten a brother, to which my aunt said that when you're together long enough people start looking like each other -.-'
after that my family split up and headed home, and...i guess i'll write up the rest of my weekend some other time :)
all in all, it was a pretty ok morning/afternoon, though i realised how much i still miss her...or at least before she started being really cruel towards the end...
the picture of my grandma that we use for the memorial things, and that is on her cremation box thingy
i wonder how old it is (it looks pretty old). reminds me of when i was little...