Grandpa’s Gravestone and All-You-Can-Eat Buffet

Peter and I accompanied mom to visit grandpa’s graveyard in Asakusa on 29th of December. Mom thought cleaning the gravestone before the New Year will make sure that grandpa can welcome a fresh New Year in heaven.

In Nihonbashi, we saw a beautiful New Year’s decoration at Takashimaya department store. Very inspiring combination of color and materials, tradition and refined modern taste.

In Asakusa we did not take any photos, because I was too busy not to cry. First, mom went to pick up a key to the graveyard from a monk at the temple, and Peter and I went to buy a bouquet of flowers at a flower shop nearby. This flower shop is run by a family and mainly targets the visitors to the temples in Asakusa, a city condensed with temples. Since most people put chrysanthemum at a gravestone in Japan, mom warned us that she does not want a single branch of ordinary flower for grandpa. Instead of buying the ready-made bouquet for temple-goers, we made a nicely arranged bouquet together with the daughter of the flower shop. I said, “please separate the bouquet in two.” Then she immediately understood that the bouquet was for the gravestone. You put flowers on both sides of a gravestone in Japan. “These are for…? Ah, for your grandpa! He must be so happy to receive such a beautiful bouquet from a granddaughter.” Then I was almost in tears. Swallowing my tears and paying for the bouquet, we headed to the graveyard. However, at the sight of mom, washing grandpa’s gravestone and talking to him, brought back my tears again. She was telling him things like, “Nemu and Peter came back to see you… It’s been a great weather and New Year will also be sunny… I am sorry I did not come to see you as often as I should this year…” I was just busy trying to find things to do so I did not have to cry. I did not even dare to translate what mom was saying to Peter, because that would definitely bring my tears out. The contrast between mom’s cheerful behavior and grandpa’s relatively new gravestone made me even more sad.

When mom finished with cleaning, Peter, mom and I stood in front of the gravestone and made a short prayer. Instead of closing my eyes, I looked up the sky and tried my best to swallow my tears. I must have looked like a kid who is trying to hold off his wee. I did not want to show my tears when I can visit his graveyard only once in a while. I am sure he would rather see my smile than tears. On the way back to the subway station, I was vaguely remembering how he looked like the very last time I saw him.

For lunch, mom wanted to take us to the all-you-can-eat buffet at Jim Thompson’s restaurant in Yurakucho. The view on top of the building was great, but for the restaurant by the leading Thai silk company, the interior decoration was disappointing. Thai food was O.K., not very authentic for someone who lived in Thailand. It was very Japanised. For example: rice was heavy Japanese rice in stead of fluffy aromatic Jasmine rice. Green papaya salad was made with cucumber. And most of all, it was not spicy! Nevertheless, the dessert was delicious, and I ate at least 3 bowls of coconut milk with tapioca pearls. Since it was all-you-can-eat buffet, we had a time limit of 70 minutes. Towards the end of our time, we noticed that the service got sloppy and the food at the buffet was not refilled any more. Mom and Peter were still going strong, and I was already stuffed after a few rounds of plates full of Thad Thai and Thai curry. Then all of a sudden, mom stood up from her chair and said angrily “they don’t even clean up my empty plates any more! (Because she has been eating so much.)” I laughed, and when I translated her complaints to Peter, he bursted into laughing, too. Mom said the kitchen staff behind the mirror in front of the buffet can actually see us, and she said they are sending us the quiet message that we should now go. It was absolutely the funniest meal I had in Japan during this trip.

Police box station in Yurakucho.