Special: 2012 Starry☆Sky Happy New Year Fortune Telling (Shiranui Shrine, omikuji)

The boys celebrating the new Dragon year in 2012!

It is common practice for Japanese to visit a shrine during the new year to pray for blessings. We can also visit Shiranui shrine (Starry☆Sky ～不知火神社～) to get our fortunes told :D I visited the Shrine in the evening after work lol~ :D The image changes depending on what time you visit.

Try your fortune for the year!

According to wiki, Omikuji (御御籤, 御神籤, or おみくじ) are random fortunes written on strips of paper at Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples in Japan. Literally “sacred lot”, these are usually received by making a small offering (generally a five-yen coin as it is considered good luck) and randomly choosing one from a box, hoping for the resulting fortune to be good. (As of 2011, coin-slot machines sometimes dispense omikuji.)

The omikuji is scrolled up or folded, and unrolling the piece of paper reveals the fortune written on it. It includes a general blessing which can be any one of the following:
* Great blessing (dai-kichi, 大吉)
* Middle blessing (chū-kichi, 中吉)
* Small blessing (shou-kichi, 小吉)
* Blessing (kichi, 吉)
* Half-blessing (han-kichi, 半吉)
* Future blessing (sue-kichi, 末吉)
* Future small blessing (sue-shou-kichi, 末小吉)
* Curse (kyou, 凶)
* Small curse (shou-kyou, 小凶)
* Half-curse (han-kyou, 半凶)
* Future curse (sue-kyou, 末凶)
* Great curse (dai-kyou, 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 or a wall of metal wires alongside other bad fortunes in the temple or shrine 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 has the option of tying it for the fortune to have a greater effect or can keep it for luck. 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. (From wikipedia)

You’ll get a random result from Shiranui’s Shrine. There are quite a number of combination and different versions for similar fortunes but no “Great curse” lol~ ^^;;

Limited period only till 16 January 2012

Shiranui Shrine Link: http://www.honeybee-cd.com/starrysky/limit/2012newyear/omikuji/index.html

New Year Greeting Card Link: http://www.honeybee-cd.com/starrysky/limit/2012nenga/index.html