I became so lost in Aoyama Cemetery's 64 acres the other day that I thought I would have to call Matthew to use one of his many mysterious iPhone apps to guide me out.

The wooden things that look like cross country skiis are prayer sticks. They symbolize bones and this is why it is not done to put your chopsticks standing straight up in your food bowl--too much of a similarity.

I love the grave marker that is being pushed by the tree. At first I thought it served rather as a cautionary tale against being buried too close to a sweet little sapling but then I decided it would be kind of neat to think of one day having one's remains snuggled up with the roots of such a tree.

By remains I mean ashes because over 99% of burials are cremations. Burial plots are very expensive ($20,000)and now almost impossible to come by in Tokyo. Recently a cemetery has been started on 5 floors of a high-rise building!

One other bit of funeral-related chopstick etiquette: during the funeral, relatives pick the bones out of the ashes using chopsticks, sometimes 2 people picking up the same bone at the same time. This is the only time 2 sets of chopsticks can share the same task--no passing food from one set to another, or picking up something large together off of a plate.