When Kazuko, my next-door neighbor, came to my "genkan" at 8 in the morning, I knew something was wrong. She never comes to my house before 9. "Amy, your landlord has died," she told me.
Mrs. Nakagawa was 84 years old and had been "hanging on," as they say. Her posed funeral photo had already been taken: a head shot of her in kimono to place above the home shrine from the day she died. I never quite understood this custom, but soon I would come to understand it fully.
Two days later, we were at the funeral home, where the body lay in a casket in the middle of a cold room. After the ceremony, we all took flowers from the displays and put them around the body, and paid our last respects.