Japan - Aoyama Cemetery - Foreigners

This cemetery also houses numerous foreigners, including some of the first to come to Japan (the very first are in Yokahama) in the late 1800s.  These brave Americans (and others) came from far away to live in a very strange land, but at a very exciting time for Japan, as it moved from the 18th century to the 20th in one big step.

The roster of those buried here - earliest seems to be 1882 - brave foreigners, all.

Most foreigners were Christian, so the cemetery is full of contrasts like this, with crosses next to traditional Japanese headstones.

The same crosses of course contrast with, and yet fit in with modern Japan

One of the earliest Americans in Japan - Mr. Howe of Orange, NJ - seems to have arrived 1867, just as Commodore Perry helped Japan open up to the world.  He must have seen a lot in his 22 years there (especially arriving at age 21)

One of the nicest - Mr. Garst was born in Ohio in 1853, graduated from West Point, and died here 1898 - a U.S. military man serving his god and country in the land of the Rising Sun.

Rev. McCagley, 49, in 1897 - I wonder what he taught at Meiji Gakuin

One doesn't expect to see a grave marked R.I.P in Tokyo - died 1882

Never quite figured this out - a set of miniature stone chruches