You're supposed to visit 3 shrines within the first 3 days of the year, but I only went to two. My second shrine visit was about a 2-hour drive south in a small fishing town called Saganoseki.
The god of this particular shrine grants wishes if you promise not to eat octopus for an agreed upon amount of time. This may sound easy to a person who thinks chewing on octopus tentacles is completely revolting (like me), but for the Japanese this is quite a difficult challenge. A couple years ago a friend gave up eating octopus for an entire year in exchange for a husband. She found a husband shortly thereafter, so our other friends wanted to try praying there, too.
The god of this particular shrine grants wishes if you promise not to eat octopus for an agreed upon amount of time. This may sound easy to a person who thinks chewing on octopus tentacles is completely revolting (like me), but for the Japanese this is quite a difficult challenge. A couple years ago a friend gave up eating octopus for an entire year in exchange for a husband. She found a husband shortly thereafter, so our other friends wanted to try praying there, too.
Before walking under the arch-gate of a shrine, you have to purify your hands and mouth with water. This one had water flowing from a spiky metal dragon head.
I've never heard anything about it, but I'm pretty sure kicking someone in the butt on shrine grounds is just asking for bad luck.
Pray, Yoshiko, pray.
I didn't ask, but I'm pretty sure Chino prayed for a husband. The big smile Yoko has on her face is the same one she gets when thinking about cakes. Is that what she prayed for?
1 comment:
That's a good picture at the end!
Post a Comment