The Bon holiday is here, when everyone returns to their hometown to visit family and pay homage to their ancestors. It's a built-in way of forcing your grown children to come back to visit you, even if you're dead.
On our island, they're truly getting into the Bon spirit, so to speak. Every evening since July, the islanders have been practicing the Shiraishi Bon dance to the beat of a "taiko" drum. All ages, from toddlers to elders, take part in the dance, which is a tribute to the Heike warriors who were defeated by the Genji in the great battle at Danno Ura in the Seto Inland Sea in 1185.
You'd think that after 700 years of doing this dance, no one would need to practice, but they still do. The elders pass it on to the young ones, who learn the dance in kindergarten and practice it throughout the elementary school years as part of their school curriculum. It's a wonderful way to preserve a culture. We could never have something like that in the U.S. Parents would complain about their children's compulsory Dancing for the Dead 101. They'd call it witchcraft.