prayers and fortunes in japan

I have to admit that I have been a little overwhelmed thinking about describing my trip to Japan. So I have decided to chop it into several little posts - so you won't get bored reading a long narrative and I won't procrastinate and not write anything at all! Even though I used a tour company when I went to Japan, it wasn't the sort of tour where you are with a group of people all the time. This tour company has a variety of tours - whether they are one morning or two weeks - and you can just design what you want to do. The tour I signed up for included a day in Tokyo, not including the day you arrive. The day in Tokyo had a quick morning tour of a few sights of Tokyo. I really wanted a little more time in Tokyo, so I arrived a day earlier to have a complete day of wandering. I headed out on the subway for the Asakusa area of the city. I had read that this area still had a sense of "old Tokyo". And it is also home to the Sensoji Temple. This temple houses a golden image of Kannon (the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy) - which is not on display to the public. For some unbelievable reason, I didn't take a picture of the temple in its entirety - just bits and pieces. This is part of the beautifully painted ceiling in the temple. Around, and in, the temple there are shops that sell items relating to Buddhism. I was also intrigued with an area that had numerous small drawers with Japanese characters on it. I just had to open one of the drawers and see what was in it. I found a stack of papers with alot of Japanese written on it, but if you turned it over there was a small portion in English. A couple walked up to the drawers and I finally got to see what the significance was. There was a metal container that had a small opening in the top. You donated 100 yen and shook the container to dispense a stick that corresponded with a Japanese character on one of the drawers. You then opened the drawer and took one of the pieces of paper. I decided to follow suit and luckily received good fortune. I saved my paper, but I noticed that some of them were knotted on pieces of wire close by. It wasn't until I got home and got to do some looking on the internet, that I found out that they are called omikuji, or written fortunes. There are 12 levels of the fortunes, ranging from Great Blessing to Great Curse. Wow, if I had known that I had the possibility of getting the Great Curse, I never would have done it! I also read that whenever the fortune is bad, it is believed that if you leave it on a pine tree (or a specially prepared place), the bad luck will stay there rather than attach itself to the bearer. If you are interested in a little bit more, click on here to get more info. There are also small wooden plaques that you purchase and write prayers and wishes on.


Another interesting scene is this pot of incense burning. People will come up and wave the smoke towards themselves and also rub it on their clothes. This is for good health.








You can watch a video I took of the process.
There was also an area with water and cups that you drank from? I am sorry, but I don't know too much about that. I hope it isn't for good health - I can't see that using communal cups is good for any one's health. A few days later, one of my tour guides gave an interesting insight into religion in Japan. (Don't quote me on any of my facts about all of this. I didn't research it like I did with SPAM. Most of this is from the mouth of a tour guide or a travel book.) He said that Shinto is a religion that is native to Japan and once was the official religion. Most Japanese practice Buddhism today. However, they supposedly interlace it with some Shintoist beliefs and practices. As my tour guide said - birth is celebrated in the Shinto religion, death is commemorated at a Buddhist temple - and nowadays the trend is to have a wedding in a Christian church!