Plot Problems and other thoughts

So, I see that everybody else seems to have liked this movie a lot. So, I guess I will be the minority, because I thought this movie was boring. I thought it had a good plot at first, but then it stretched on and on, and then we get to the part about Daigo's dad dying, and the giving people rocks, and I was just like..."why is this in here? I thought this was a movie about death and life, and now we're on to talking about family issues?"

I loved the beginning scene showing all the performance of a Japanese burial preparation. I thought it was very interesting how they invited the family to "come closer and watch". I think I agree with Kayla though, that I don't think I would want to see one of my family members being washed for burial. I have been to a few family funerals, and it's weird and sad enough to just see them dead; then to see someone preparing their body for the coffin? Eee....

I was reading an article that talked about how the dead bodies were washed, and Daigo also spent a lot of his time washing himself in the bathhouse. I don't know what the point of that was, but it was kind of interesting.

I had a bit of a hard time with the character Mika. I know somebody else posted a blog about how adorable she was. I agree. She was adorable and self-sacrificing and wonderful, which is why I was shocked when she dumped her husband because he had a bad job. I know they consider that job unclean, but she was so willing to follow him and help him and cheer him up through anything... until that. I just had  a hard time believing her character would let us down at that point. Is it really that bad? Didn't she know somebody has to bury people?