How are you?
I'm fine.

It has got much cooler and the season of the festival(Matsuri) has come. So I'll read about "Masturi" from "Japan - an illustrated Encyclopedia"(Kodansha) today.

festivals(matsuri) Matsuri are chiefly of sacred origin, related (at least originally) to the cultivation of rice and the spiritual well-being of local communities. They derive ultimately from ancient Shinto rites for the propitiation of the gods and the spirits of the dead, and for the fulfillment of the agricultural round. Some of these Shinto rites were incorporated, along with Buddhist and Confucian rites and ceremonies imported from China, into the imperial calendar of annual observances(nenchu gyoji) The word matsuri includes the rites and festivals practiced in both FOLK SHINTO and institutionalized Shinto. A matsuri is basically a symbolic act whereby participants enter a state of active communication with the gods(KAMI); it is accompanied by communion among participants in the form of feast and festival. In a broad sense, matsuri may also include festivals in which the playful element and commercial interests have all but obliterated the original sacramental context.

This year I have to carry a portable shrine(mikoshi).
There is a shrine which is called "Tennosha" and we celebrate a festival at the shrine in October every year. Some people who are selected pull festival cars and some carry a portable shrine. Children perform sacred music and dance(kagura). I am selected the member of carying the portable shrine this year. On the day before the festival I have to get up early to clean the precincts(keidai).

Then, see you next time!

How are you?
I'm fine.

I didn't write a letter last month not because I forgot it but because I didn't feel like doing so. I don't know why but now Christmas drawing near, I'd like to send a Christmas card for you.

This yaer is the last year of the 20th century and I hope 21st century will be a good and happy century. We have many diffucult problems, indeed, such as the environmental problems, the refugee, the population problem, the food problem, the poverty and so on, but we will have to overcome all the difficulties that we are faced with and make the world in the next century good place to live for everyone. Each of us should think of it, I think.