It was Tokyo Obon (which takes place a month before the rest of the country does obon for some reason). During Obon, the spirits of your dead ancestors and relatives return from the grave to your home for a week. you're supposed to have "horses" made of eggplant and cucumbers to aid their journey and have lanterns or ground cherry plants by the door to guide them back. you're also supposed to have their favorite foods etc, etc. this being my grandmother's first obon (and therefore very important), we were supposed to do all of these things. we fucked it up, of course, and didn't do it right so i figured it was important to do at least part of it traditionally. I went to Toro Nagashi in Ueno park where they float lanterns on the water on the last day of Obon to send the spirits back to the underworld.
there were monks with basketson their heads playing flutes (kinda pied piper stuff) to lead the spirits:
the altar.
and a short ceremony.
each monk gets a lantern to place in the water:
a lot of lanterns were placed in the pond. there was a large bonfire in the middle of the lake as well.
it was very quiet, simple and very pretty:
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