We had decided on one of the hotel restaurants as the rendezvous last night and got together at 6:30am, the designated time, after check-out from the hotel. I admired their punctuality and toughness. We grabbed breakfast from the tables of the cafeteria and headed for Tokyo Station to catch the bullet train. The nearest bullet train station from Y's cemetery is Shin-shirakawa and it took about one and a half hours to reach it. Then lively conversation followed as a matter of course. The primary topics were about the old days.
We rented a car and went to a supermarket at first. We got incense sticks, flowers for offerings, Japanese sake and a lighter. We were all non-smokers and nobody had a lighter. It was about 15 minutes' drive from Shin-shirakawa station to his cemetery. I'll post several pictures of his tombstone for other friends who couldn't visit it. Some cleaned his tombstone up by splashing it with water. Others pulled all the weeds in his grave unit. I lit incense sticks, and arranged flowers in a vase at his tombstone. We prayed for his peacefulness in the next world and wished we could have seen him someday, somewhere again.
When I visited last time a decade ago, his mother was alive. Now she was buried with her son and husband. I recalled her last words. "Always remember Y!" Yes, I swore I would never forget Y and his parents, in silence.
(Vocabulary)
decide on/upon sth [句動詞] (多くの選択肢の中から) ＜…＞を選ぶ, 決める
Have you decided on a career (×decided a career) yet? もう仕事を決めましたか．
複数の選択肢の中から一つを選ぶ場合はdecide on/upon sthを用いる．
rendezvous 待ち合わせ場所; (約束の時間に，または場所で) 会う, 落ち合う
rendezvous with sb ＜人＞と落ち合う
as a matter of course/routine 当然［日常］のこととして
Safety checks are carried out as a matter of routine. 安全点検は日常的に実施されている．
light ［burn］an incense stick 線香をたく
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