Happy New Year

Happy New Year, everyone :)
My family went to Arashiyama on New Year's Eve. We walked around Togetsukyo with my dogs. My dogs looked sooo happy and started to run joyfully. I was happy too. This year, I want to take them to many places full of nature and spend more wonderful time than last year. On New Year's Day, we paid a visit to Kinkaku-ji. Thanks to snow, we could see snowy Kinkaku-ji (雪の金閣寺). The temple was very very beautiful and made me impressed! How about your winter vacation? Was it fun?? ;)


   
             

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The horrible curse

Hi everyone :)

Howl finds out that the spell is actually Neil’s homework from his teacher, Miss Angorian. Neil says that she has the Howl’s spell, so Howl decides to go and see Miss Angorian with Sophie and Michael. Miss Angorian is young and very beautiful. Howl asks her about his spell, so she returns it to him: it is a spell for making things bigger. He also asks her about the spell that Miss Angorian gives Neil as homework. She says that the spell is a famous poetry by John Donne’s Song and reads out the second verse.
It is the following:

    If thou beest born to strange sights,
         Things invisible to see,
    Ride ten thousand days and nights,
        Till age snow white hairs on thee.
    Thou, when thou return'st, wilt tell me
       All strange wonders that befell thee,
            And swear
            Nowhere
    Lives a woman true, and fair.
   (John Donne, Song)

Howl turns deathly pale because he finds that the poetry is a horrible curse which is sent to him by the Witch of the Waste.

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A strange country: Wales

Hi everyone :)

Michael shows Howl the spell that he is having so much trouble with. Michael says that he tried to catch a falling star, but it did not succeed and the star died. Howl is confused because it is not the spell that he left for Michael. Howl guesses that when Sophie opened the black door, this paper came through. Howl gets angry with that Sophie and Michael tried to catch a falling star because it is a very dangerous thing. Howl makes Michael promise that he will never try to catch another falling star. When Calcifer mutters that Howl has caught a falling star before, Howl glares at him. Howl decides to go to the black door with Sophie and Michael to look the second verse which is more important than the first one.

Once Howl, Sophie and Michael pass thought the black door, they find themselves in a rainy neighborhood of new houses. After they walk for a few minutes, they arrive at a yellow brick house called Rivendell. A little girl comes out of the house, calling Howl “Uncle Howell.” Howl introduces Sophie and Michael to his sister Megan and his niece Mari. Howl asks Megan that his nephew Neil may lose his homework recently. Megan agrees that, so Howl goes to Neil’s room. 

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Go and catch a falling star

Hi everyone :)

One day, while Sophie and Calcifer are talking, Michael is having trouble with the spell that Howl has given him to learn. He asks Sophie to help with his homework. Sophie takes a look at the spell.
It is the following:

    Go and catch a falling star,
       Get with child a mandrake root,
    Tell me where all past years are,
       Or who cleft the Devil’s foot,
    Teach me to hear mermaids singing,
       Or to keep off envy’s stinging,
           And find
           And wind
    Serves to advance an honest mind.
    (John Donne, Song)

    Decide what this is about, write a second verse yourself.

Sophie cannot make out what it is all about. Sophie and Michael discuss the spell for a long time. Finally they decide that they should do what the spell says, and do the first line “Go and catch a falling star.” Calcifer tells them he does not want them to go, but they leave. Sophie and Michael arrive at the marsh and wait for the falling star. Suddenly stars start to fall, Michael is going to catch a star. However, the star looks frightened of Michael and Sophie and does not want tem to catch. Thus, the star chooses to die rather than be caught, and falls into the marsh and disappears. Sophie and Michael go home sadly.

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Sophie's sister Lettie

Hi everyone :)

Michael comes home and starts to talk happily about the truth that his girlfriend “Lettie” is the different person that Howl loves. Sophie is glad to hear that because Michael is around the right age for Martha and he is a steady boy. However, she gets worried about the real Lettie. Howl comes home and is worried about the job offered by the King. The job is finding the King’s brother, Prince Justin who goes to the Waste to look for the Wizard Sulliman. Howl does not want to accept the job because he really does not want to fight the Witch of the Waste. Howl comes up with a wonderful idea. He asks Sophie to go to see the King pretending to be his mother and speak ill of Howl.

The next day, Howl goes out with his guitar to see Lettie. Sophie tries to follow him, but her walk is very slow and cannot catch up with Howl. Michael has a bright idea: there is a pair of seven-league boots inside. By using the boots, they can arrive at Mrs. Fairfax’s house. Michael introduces Sophie as Lettie’s great-aunt. When they enter into Mrs. Fairfax’s house, her dog suddenly runs out of the house. Michael manages to catch the dog, but Sophie and he see a scene that Howl is sitting across from Lettie, and she is looking at him adoringly. Mrs. Fairfax knows who Howl is because he is a student of Mrs. Penstemmon who is also Mrs. Fairfax’s teacher. She also knows about Lettie well, not Martha.

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Green slime and the Scarecrow

Hi everyone :)

One day, when Sophie cooks, Howl comes screaming out of the bathroom and shouts angrily at her because with her all cleaning, she ruins his spell. As a result, his blond hair turns to red. Howl is very shocked and his magic starts to evoke loud moans of despair. Sophie and Michael leave the castle to escape from Howl’s magic and wait for his magic to calm down. When they return the castle, they find Howl covered in green slime. They take him to the bathroom and wash his body. Howl tells Sophie about a girl that Howl loves. The girl has told him that there is someone else. When he says the girl’s name Lettie, Sophie is surprised and gets worried about her sister Martha.

The next day, Sophie is worried over Martha and debates weather she should see Martha or not. She decides to leave the castle to see Martha, but suddenly she hears a knock on the door and opens it. It is the scarecrow that she helped on the road. The scarecrow is alive and trying to enter into the castle, so Sophie is scared and asks Calcifer to speed up so that they can get rid of the freaky scarecrow. Eventually, the scarecrow disappears out of sight, so Sophie feels relieved. 

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Howl's new cleaning lady

Hi everyone :)

When Sophie wakes up, she is almost convinced that she dreamed the entire thing. However, Sophie feels a pain and discovers that she is in Howl’s moving castle, and that she has truly made a deal with the fire demon, and that she has been spelled old. When Michael wakes up, he offers Sophie some bread and cheese for breakfast. Sophie wants to eat bacon and eggs, but Michael explains that Calcifer, the fire demon, only bend his head for Howl, and so no one else uses fire. Sophie makes Calcifer bend his head and starts to cook on him. When Howl arrives, he asks Sophie who she is. Sophie says that she is there as Howl’s new cleaning lady. Howl is surprised a little, but he accepts.

As soon as Sophie starts to clean the castle, Michael and Calcifer complain. However she cannot stand dirty room anymore, so she continues to clean. Howl comes out of the bathroom and warns Sophie not kill any of house spiders, then he leaves. As she cleans, Sophie looks for a sign of Calcifer’s contract with Howl, but she cannot find. Instead, She finds some love letters in Michael’s room and she thinks he has a girlfriend. Sophie is going to clean Howl’s dirty room, but Howl wants his room dirty, so he rejects.

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