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• sailor firestar

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Birthday
• 1979-05-10
Gender
• Female
Location
• Shizuoka, Japan
Member Since
• 2004-03-06
Occupation
• English Teacher
Real Name
• Katy

Personal

Achievements
• stayed alive for 28+ years
Anime Fan Since
• 1997
Favorite Anime
• Sailor Moon, Naruto, Spirited Away, all things CLAMP, all things Gundam
Goals
• to not freeze during my first Japanese winter!
Hobbies
• Rollerblading, Writing, Drawing, Reading, Karate
Talents
• Pretty much the same as those *points upwards*




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myOtaku.com: sailor firestar


Tuesday, August 14, 2007

   People must know their own abilities and use them well to find happiness in their lives. - Guilbert Dullindal, Gundam Seed Destiny

Ahhh...I'm really tired and I really didn't want to make this post tonight, but the internet is holding up nicely for now so I guess I'd better get on with it. It's nearly midnight already so I'll have to keep it short. Yesterday and today we have been hearing about exactly how they do things in the junior high schools here in Shizuoka City and getting some demonstrations and lesson ideas. Tomorrow we are going to visit a school and practice doing our own self introduction lesson on the other ALTs. We had to plan a lesson this afternoon too, but not actually teach it and everyone said mine was good. Personally, I thought it sucked, but whatever. After tomorrow we have 5 days of "kakikyu" or refresh days that we have to take off sometime this month so I'll be able to explore around a bit more and finish organizing/decorating my apartment.

Tonight we (me, Stacey, Lauren, Shirley, Jasmine, and Holly) went to the O-bon Matsuri. That's the Festival of the Dead for those of you who don't know Japanese holidays. It can be any time in the late summer really and is held at Buddhist temples. There is one right behind Stacey and Lauren's apartment building so we could just walk there. There were lanterns lining all the walkways and rows and rows of them in front of the temple to represent soldiers who died in WWII from our area. When you first walk up to the temple you cross a little bridge, then you're supposed to go to the water stand/hut thing and wash your hands. Not wash like with soap and running water, but scoop some really cold water from the center of the wooden structure with this long stick (ahh....I really need to learn the names of these things!) and pour it over each hand. Then you walk up to the temple itself, throw a coin into the slotted box (Y5 andY50 are lucky b/c they have holes in the middle so you're supposed to use one of those) and then bow twice, clap twice, bow again and pray for something. Then you can go down and watch the little fireworks display and the dancing and taiko drums and eat. You can even join in the dancing if you want b/c there is a small circle of dancers on a stage, and a much larger circle going around the stage. It looked pretty easy, but I didn't do it. Stacey and Shirley did though and we took lots of pictures. I got some more takoyaki, and some gyoza with anko (sweet red bean paste) inside and a strawberry sno cone (I need to learn the name for those too...) and it was all really good! We stayed for maybe 2 hours and then walked back to the apartments. Shirley and I had to bike home after which was kind of a pain since it's about a 20min ride, but it's good for me to exercise like that every day. Tomorrow the 6 of us are going out to eat with Miki-san and Nana-chan so that will be fun too. Oh, and Miki-san said she would look up where and when the Naruto Shippuden movie was playing for me! I can't wait to see it!!
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