The last Sunday of the year is the traditional day for cleaning the temple at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church. This was my fourth time cleaning. Ven. Kenjo Igarashi cleans the altar and the statues, including dusting the inside of the Butsudan. My chore is to polish all of the brass. Rev. Igarashi’s son and wife and one other parishioner help out dusting and mopping the temple floor.

Following the cleanup, Mrs. Igarashi prepared noodles with mochi, mushrooms and hard-boiled eggs. I seriously don’t understand why more people don’t participate. The lunch alone is more than reward enough for me to come back next year.