This spring, my husband and I traveled to Japan. It had been twelve years since I last experienced spring there, so the season felt especially meaningful. While planning our trip, I realized that our stay would include Vernal Equinox Day (春分の日), a national holiday in Japan.
My mother passed away last year, and her ashes are now kept in a local columbarium (納骨堂). A columbarium is an indoor building where families’ urns are stored. In my family’s case, it is run by the city, and the building itself is designed to look like a Japanese castle, with white walls and a tiled roof. You can visit the place anytime, but the building is only open on certain days for security reasons, likely because staff must be present whenever it is unlocked. During this trip, it was open because of Ohigan (お彼岸) — a Buddhist tradition in Japan that happens twice a year, during the spring equinox (春分の日) and autumn equinox (秋分の日), when families visit graves and bring offerings. I felt grateful that this timing allowed us to go inside and pray in front of her ashes.
I brought her favorite drink as an offering and left it there briefly—just for a few minutes. I didn’t want to leave it for too long, since offerings eventually become waste. After praying, my husband and I walked around the columbarium. The place is lined with cherry trees, and although it was still early in the season on March 20, I found a thin branch with three blossoms just beginning to open.
Those three blossoms were the first cherry flowers I saw in Japan during this trip. Standing there, I felt as if my mother had guided me to them—a quiet gift, my first cherry blossoms in Japan in twelve years.
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