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Originally Posted by YuriTokoro
Hi, Nathan. Thank you very much.
“Across Japan” sounds very useful.
However, my dictionary says, “When something happens across a place or organization, it happens equally everywhere within it.” Some areas in Japan don’t have bon around August 15. That depends on the area. Don’t I have to be concerned about “equally everywhere”?
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A useful word to put in this sentence then would be 'sporadically'.
This word is kind of the opposite of 'equally'. If I change the sentence to:
It is held sporadically across Japan on August 15
Now we are stating that it is held in almost random cities. But you could also use the word 'various.'
It is held on August 15 in various locations in Japan
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When we make a horse and a cow before we visit the graves, can I say “after that”?
Should I say “other customs”?
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Yes, my version does sound like you visit the graves first, and then make the 'shouryouuma'. So a better word than 'after' would be 'aside' or 'besides'
...but asides that it depends on the area.
...but that aside it depends on the area.
...but besides that it depends on the area.
If you want to say visiting the graves and creating 'shouryouuma' are the two most common customs you could put both those ideas into one sentence.
The two main customs of Bon are visiting our ancestor's graves and the creation of 'shouryouuma'. The “shouryouuma” are a horse and a cow made with a cucumber and an eggplant to welcome the ancestors. 'Shouryou' means spirit, and 'uma' means horse. They are the spirits’ conveyances between the afterworld and this world. The cucumber, representing the horse, is used by the spirits to arrive quickly. The eggplant, representing the cow, slows the spirits' return to the afterworld. This lets the spirits maximize their time with us.
That aside, any further customs to celebrate the Bon festival depends on the area.
However, there are many people who don’t .....
Since the main focus of this paragraph is the 'shouryouuma', I did not mention the other customs until it later. If you wanted to give examples of some area-specific customs, you could mention them in the second paragraph.
That aside, any further customs to celebrate the Bon festival depends on the area. In Tokyo, ....... In the Kansai region ..... but in Sapporo...