I had been having poignant conversations with my mother all day about death. I asked her to tell me stories about the family gravesite we would visit as a child, and if she would like to be buried there when she one day leaves her body.

I had always known it was a special place, but on this day, I learned how very special it is. She shared with me that seven generations of my matrilineal line before her rest in Yanaka Cemetery in Japan. The cultural view of death and ancestral reverence in Japan is different from that of many western viewpoints, where we celebrate our ancestors every year in what also happens to be a national week-long holiday.