TOKYO/HONG KONG -- On a recent Saturday afternoon on the roof deck of a small ship in Tokyo Bay, 13 passengers sat in somber silence as the vessel chugged its way to the middle of the inlet. The tortured lyrics of John Lennon's 1970 song "Mother" wafted faintly from a speaker inside the boat as jets roared against a deep blue sky above.
In the water below, hundreds of brightly colored flower petals floated on the surface, marking the spot where a paper bag containing the cremated remains of a passenger's family member had been tossed into the bay.
