Tombstones, Fun and Not

OK, now that I've gotten over my bento phase - somewhat - I'm moving headlong into my kawaii phase. That's what I see going on in Japan lately. Kawaii = cute. Cute here, cute there, cute cute everywhere. And the epitome of that is our old almost-35-year-old friend, Hello Kitty. And to prove my point, I present to you, get ready, a Hello Kitty tombstone (real as far as I can tell).

That's from http://japansugoi.com/wordpress/hello-kitty-tombstones-in-japan/ and the page there also features video of a tombstone shop with another Hello Kitty with a soccer ball. Oh my. Can you imagine being remembered by future generations as the family member who chose to be buried under Hello Kitty? Yikes. I can see HK on clothes, and toys, and bento boxes. Tombstones? I don't know. I'd have to get used to that for a while...

PS To give you a bit of background on my feeling on tombstones, we found out a few years ago that the first member of my family (on my father's side) settled in Tennent, NJ, just outside Freehold. He and several members of his family died and are buried there, and you can see their family plot at the Old Tennent Presbyterian Church. He was buried before the Revolutionary War and had part of his tombstone shot off by a British cannonball (!!!). I'm therefore partial to standard, boring stones. Long-lasting ones. Ones that will hopefully be here, as those ones have, for 250 years. Wow.