“I want to go to Kyoto for ohigan this year?”
“Ohigan? What’s that?”
“You visit family graves. Kind of like Obon”
This is a snippet of a random conversation Dude and I had. I’ve lived in Japan for 8 years now and I’d never heard of ohigan.
What is Ohigan?
You probably figured out one point already: ohigan is a time to visit graves. But there’s a bit more to it.
Ohigan is a Buddhist holiday unique to Japan that happens twice a year during the spring and fall equinoxes. It’s a time when day and night are equal in length and it’s said that the other world is close.
My Ohigan Trip
This trip we visited several of my mother-in-law’s relatives’ graves in three different locations in Kyoto. I’d been to one before, and the two nephews had never been to any of them.
Dude and I headed for Kyoto by car at around 10:30 on Saturday, September 21, and arrived at Konen-ji in Kyoto at around 1:30. We were going to meet up with Dude’s mother, sister, and two nephews there, but we were a bit late. The nephews had already cleaned the grave, so we just visited and went to meet up with the in-laws at Kazariya, an aburi mochi shop.
I’d never had aburi mochi before and it was excellent! The mochi is covered in a white miso and kinako paste and is super sweet. All I’d had for lunch was an onigiri I got at the Taga service area, so I was pretty hungry.
Once we were all fed and rested and the elementary-aged nephews had finished running around, we went to Dude’s maternal grandparents’ house to park the car. The nephews kept asking why we were parking at a random house. The last time they’d been there they were only three years old.
The next spot was a small graveyard in the neighborhood over there. The nephews got to work cleaning the graves, then we did quick prayers at each of the three graves and at the statue at the gate. Honestly, cleaning graves with kids is the best because all the adults have to do is hang out and make sure they do everything right.
Our final stop was Otani-san, aka Otani Sobyo Temple. This was the only location I’d visited before.
Unlike the other two locations, there’s a dedicated prayer spot and you don’t have to go searching for the gravestones. We offered incense and prayed there before resting for a bit in the AC and splitting up.
Dude and I had a much needed dinner at Shinpuku Saikan in the Yamashina part of Kyoto. It was my first proper meal since breakfast and was almost a divine soy sauce experience. You can see my review here.
Once we were fed and happy, we made our way back to Gifu! It was a very full day, but I was glad to see my pets.
Kitsuke!
By the way, I wore a yukata kimono-style for the trip. It was still super hot. I used an usotuki eri without a juban over a t-shirt and loose lounge pants for maximum coolness.
