Bon is when the spirits of the dead come back to their ancestral homes to visit. When I moved into my house, the grandfather's "ihai" (ancestral tablet) was still in the Butsudan (family shrine) and stayed there for years. I always enjoyed leaving sake, fruit and other offerings out for his return at Bon.

When the grandmother died in February, I thought the son would also leave the ihai tablet in the Butsudan, and I was looking forward to putting out green tea and rice on the altar for the "obachan" in the mornings. But the son took both the grandfather and the grandmother's ihai back to his apartment in the city. I had missed my chance to care for a spirit. And no one would come back to my house for Bon, either, since the spirits return to where the ihai is.

But, as luck had it, my neighbor's little dog died the other evening. I don't mean to say that I was not sad that the dog died, I was just happy that I wouldn't have to walk it anymore when my neighbor was gone. It's one of those dogs that you have to lug around on the end of a leash like a ball and chain.