Japanese Traditions

January 31, 2017

When it comes to fortune-telling, there are two types of people: those who believe in it, and those who don’t believe in it. I consider myself to be the kind of person who doesn’t believe in fortunes, but finds the concept of fortune-telling quite interesting.

One of my favorite things to do when I visit a shrine or a temple in Japan is getting an omikuji. An omikuji is a fortune that predicts a person’s health, luck, life, or chances at finding love. They are typically written on strips of paper that you can get at either Shinto shrines or Buddhist shrines. To get an omikuji, you make a small offering—a five-yen coin is common, but a one-hundred-yen coin is also accepted. Then, you receive a random fortune that will detail what kinds of events may occur in your future and how they will affect your luck. Sometimes, your fortune might be good. Sometimes, it might be bad.

In the event that your fortune is bad, you can try to get rid of your bad luck. Next to the omikuji area is a small wall of metal wires. It is custom for those who receive a bad fortune to tie their omikuji to this wall so that the bad luck will not attach itself to the person but instead remain on the wall.

A couple of days ago, I had visited a famous temple in Asakusa called Sensoji, or the Asakusa Kannon Temple. There, I got my fortune by going to the omikuji area, offering one hundred yen, shaking a container full of numbered sticks, pulling out a stick at random, and then getting my fortune from the corresponding numbered drawer. I ended up getting a “small fortune” (which basically meant that my life will be relatively normal, with the occasional good event happening). Unfortunately for my friend who went with me that day, he got a bad omikuji, which predicted that many unpleasant events will occur in his future. Of course, my friend immediately tied his fortune to the wall, but decided not to try to get another fortune because he was paranoid that he’d get even more bad luck.

Written By

Yvette Ortiz

Hello! My name is Yvette, and I am a fifth-year student here at Northeastern. For my final semester as an undergrad, I decided to study abroad in Tokyo, Japan. One of the main reasons I chose to go abroad was my desire to push myself out of my comfort zone, and I figured traveling alone to a foreign country where my native language is rarely used would be a pretty effective way of doing that. Aside from improving my Japanese, my main study-abroad goal is to not be afraid of making mistakes. Since I will be immersed in a completely different culture, I will receive ample opportunities to initiate conversations with native Japanese speakers. I’ll probably make tons of mistakes, but that's okay, because that's what normally happens when you're learning a foreign language while living in a foreign country.