Another funeral

The cold winter has brought another death in the village. In a small community, you tend to keep track of these things. This time, it was on the north side of the village so my group didn't have to attend to the funeral proceedings but one member of each household is expected to go to one of the funeral ceremonies. We decided Takahiro would go in the evening and Kashiko would go in the daytime, thereby representing both households. This was fine except that Takahiro arrived 45 minutes late to the one-hour ceremony. How do you get the time wrong and go late? It's not like they're going to have a do-over.

The man who passed away was a cousin of my father-in-law on the Nibe side but his name was Masunaga. As a second son, he didn't stand to inherit anything so he married the daughter or a family that didn't have an heir. He adopted their name and became head of their household. One more reason why there is a strong tradition of marrying outside the village. You never know who you might be related to.