Automated Crystal Ball Machines? WTF!? (Only in Japan!-10)
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Japanese Notes!
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神社-shrine
神=かみ=kami=god. When you talk about a god, you usually say, Okamisama.
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大=pronounced DAI or OO and it means BIG
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鳥=tori=bird
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お参り=omairi=prayer
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Shimenawa (注連縄 or 七五三縄? lit. enclosing rope) are lengths of braided rice straw rope used for ritual purification in the Shinto religion. They are often seen festooned with shide. A space bound by shimenawa often indicates a sacred or pure space, such as that of a shrine.
Shimenawa are said to act as a ward against evil spirits and are often set up at a ground-breaking ceremony before construction begins on a new building. Shimenawa may be found at Shinto shrines, torii gates, and sacred landmarks. They are also used to mark trees that are inhabited by spirits called Kodama. Cutting down these trees is thought to bring misfortune.
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Omikuji (御御籤, 御神籤, or おみくじ) are random fortunes written on strips of paper at Shinto shrines in Japan.
Literally sacred lottery, these are usually received by pulling one out randomly from a box that one shakes, hoping for the resulting fortune to be good. The omikuji falls out of a small hole, scrolled up. (Nowadays, these are sometimes coin-slot machines.) Unrolling the piece of paper reveals the fortune written on it, which can be any one of the following:
Great blessing (dai-kichi, 大吉)
Middle blessing (chū-kichi, 中吉)
Small blessing (shō-kichi, 小吉)
Blessing (kichi, 吉)
Half-blessing (han-kichi, 半吉)
Near-blessing (sue-kichi, 末吉)
Near-small-blessing (sue-shō-kichi, 末小吉)
Curse (kyō, 凶)
Small curse (shō-kyō, 小凶)
Half-curse (han-kyō, 半凶)
Near-curse (sue-kyō, 末凶)
Great curse (dai-kyō, 大凶)
The omikuji predicts the person's chances of his or her hopes coming true, of finding a good match, or generally matters of health, fortune, life, etc. When the prediction is bad, it is a custom to fold up the strip of paper and attach it to a pine tree in the temple grounds. A purported reason for this custom is a pun on the word for pine tree (松 matsu) and the verb 'to wait' (待つ matsu), the idea being that the bad luck will wait by the tree rather than attach itself to the bearer. In the event of the fortune being good, the bearer should keep it. Though nowadays this custom seems more of a children's amusement, omikuji are available at most shrines, and remain one of the traditional activities related to shrine-going, if lesser.
Compare perhaps the custom of writing a prayer on a specially-prepared wooden block called an ema, which is then tied to an ad hoc scaffold.
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