ogitsu oceanside graveyard

today i took a long train ride (all of 5 min) north to ogitsu. an aussie guy i met here told me about a surf shop with used surfboards. they were either too short or too expensive. the search continues. after that, i wandered down towards the beach and found a cemetery. cliff on one side, trees on two, and a great view of the ocean on the last. granted, no one in there is doing much looking at the moment, but given the choice, i'd certainly prefer to end up buried in a similar spot.

it's mildly disquieting to see your reflection in someone's gravestone. especially on a foggy, gloomy (yet still disturbingly hot and humid) day. in other cemeteries i've visited, it's always interesting to read some of the names, and wonder about their lives. "why was hers so short," "he died before...." and so on. this time, i couldn't read anything. the gravestones look brand new, but they look like that in every cemetery i've come across. where are all the old cemeteries....

cemeteries always remind me of my favourite poem - Requiem by Robert Louis Stevenson.

Under the wide and starry sky
Dig the grave and let me lie:
Glad did I live, and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.

This be the verse you 'grave for me:
Here he lies where he long'd to be;
Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.

i always pictured a man whose life was well lived and full, with few regrets.

as i was pondering, i thought that rather than being buried in a great place that you love, wouldn't it be better to live in that kind of place? i'm living in that kind of place. are you?

incidentally, i've liked that poem since i had to memorize one for grade 9 english. while i have always liked it a lot, it was fortunately one of the shortest poems in the textbook. deep thoughts are great, but you don't want to get too deep or it starts to smell suspiciously like bs.