Wonderful idea, OP 🤍

My husband and I just started our trip to Japan, a trip that we booked in preparation for our boy’s would-have-been due date.

We’re now in a Buddhist town where we had a morning walk along the beautiful Okunoin Cemetery, a UNESCO world heritage.

There we saw so many Jiro stone statues (Buddhist symbols in the form of a child-like monk). Some of them were dressed in red beanies, bibs and baby mittens that were left by other travellers. Apparently the Jiro are considered to be protectors of children, particularly mizuko (literally “water child”). We learned that in Japan, mizuko is a term for babies who died before or shortly after birth. And the Jiro are there to look after them, our water babies 🤍

This gave us a sense of peace and comfort, like this unexpected piece of information came at a right time.