January 12, 2011 Dear Moca, How are you doing today? Im at school and I am fine.

Before winter break, the whole 6th grade went to Sensoji Temple. The Sensoji Buddhist Temple is located in Asakusa, Tokyo and is the oldest temple in the city, and one of the most important in Japan. The temple is dedicated to the Goddess Kannon, also known as the Goddess of Mercy. The first thing we did as we came to the Temple was to get the omikuji fortunes. I put a hundred yen in a hole, and shook the cylindrical box until a stick with a number fell out. My number was 28, and so there were these boxes that had numbers on each of them and I took out the fortune from the box #28(its a strip of paper), and which was the second best fortune. The omikuji predicts the persons chance of his, or her hopes coming true, of finding a good match, or generally matters of health, fortune, life, etc. I didnt get the greatest fortune, but when you get the bad fortune, its a custom to fold up the strip of paper and attach it to a pine tree, or a set of metal wires (theress always a set of metal wire or a pine tree near the omikuji place). When you do so, the power of the bad fortune is left at the temple and cannot affect the person who drew it. Many fortunes are taken seriously. This year is the year of the Dragon. In Chinese astrology, because the moons cycle repeats itself every 12 years, there are 12 animals in the Chinese Horoscope, which is one for each year of the lunar cycle. According to the myths from long time ago, Buddha decided to call all the animals on earth, but only twelve came: the Rat, the Ox, the Tiger, the Rabbit, the Dragon, the Snake, the Horse, the Goat, the Monkey, the Rooster, the Dog, and the Pig. As a reward, Buddha assigned each of these animals a year on the affirming that children born in that year would acquire the personality traits of the animal assigned to that year. In order to decide their order in the Chinese Zodiac cycle, the animals held a race. The first one to cross the river would be granted the first year, the second was the second year, and so on. Dragons are full of strength and energy. If you were born on the year of the dragon, you are powerful, wealthy and wise. You can rely on the Monkey or the Rat, but you should watch out for Dogs. I hope you enjoyed this letter that I wrote because it was a school assignment. I hope to see you again at home, and have a nice day. Sincerely, Megan