There is a wonderful post on Joi Ito's blog about national ID cards in Japan, and collective gravestones. He identifies the image below as "my grave." You sort of have to read the whole thing, but (spoiler) here's how it ends.
After the study group meeting at City Hall, I visited our family grave. I took a look at where my name will at some point be etched as the 19th family head of the Ito family. I took the opportunity to grill my uncle a bit more about the specifics of our history since I'll be the custodian of this information at some point. (…)
As always, staring at the place on the gravestone where my name will be etched along with all of the previous family members makes me feel like a mere blip in history and is humbling and strange.
