It is said that a lot of Japanese believe in superstitions. I don't know whether it is true or not, but a lot of my Japanese friends believe in fortune telling. If you wanna know how big the influence of this fortune telling, you can read below.
(By the way, I cannot mention any name here to protect 'the innocent'. The innocent that I mean here is me, not my friend. If she find that I write her name alongside this story, I think she's gonna kill me... :-) )
It was close to new year day, and one of my friends asked me whether I fancy to see the turn of year in a 神社 (jinja - Japanese shrine). I never been to a shrine in a new year eve and it should be interesting sight, so I accepted the offer. I came to her place around 8 pm, and while waiting until close to midnight, we sat in a 炬燵 (kotatsu - short legged table with heater), watched TV, drunk some hot tea... a really nice way to spend a cold night (it was winter, of course). The kotatsu was so cozy that the more the night grew, the less we wanted to crawl out of it, let alone to go to the shrine. The clock turned its hand to 11, and finally she said lazily, "It's cold outside. Why don't we just stay here and eat 年越し蕎麦?"(toshikoshi soba - soba (Japanese traditional noodle made from buckwheat) that usually eaten on the new year eve)
Of course I didn't mind at all. We continued watching TV, and the program happened to be a fortune telling program. It told you how your luck would be in the coming year, and it also mentioned the lucky item that you should have during the turn of year. I forgot what was the lucky item for my zodiac, however, I clearly remembered what the lucky item for 蠍座 (sasori-za - Scorpio (my friend's zodiac)): it was 甘酒 (amazake - sweet half sake).
And since it is well known that shrines usually offer free amazake on new year eve, you can easily guess what was my friend reaction: she jumped out of kotatsu, grabbed her coat, and said, "What are we waiting for? Let's go!"
Off we went, and in 30 minutes she got her lucky item for that night. I didn't know whether she got lucky after she drunk the amazake or not, but since the night was cold, it should be great to drink it. Unfortunately, I cannot drink it because it contain alcohol, but later we had our toshikoshi soba, enough to warm me up in that cold night... :-)
Well, I don't know whether faith can really move a mountain or not, but I know now that faith (in fortune telling) can get you out of kotatsu and through a cold winter night... :-)
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