When I was still at Fordham, I lived in a dorm with 5 other girls. To amuse ourselves, we had an in-house fortune teller. It was a knick knack we picked up at a novelty store. It was a tube with numbered sticks with each number (or combination of numbers) corresponding to a specific fortune. We would refer to it every so often to get answers to academic dilemmas (will I pass my midterm?) to the ever popular love questions (should I go out with ____). When I went to Tokyo, I found myself faced with a large version of our old college fortune game.
In the Asakusa Temple, they had a fortune box. According to Miwako, if you received a good fortune, you could take it with you. If you were dealt a bad fortune, you tie it to one of the trees/branches/bad-fortune-stands and leave it behind. So brother and I sought out the fortune stand and totally got into the game.
Here are the instructions.
Here is my brother contemplating his question before shaking the big metal canister.
I couldn’t shake my canister properly because it was full of sticks and they barely “shook.” The opening was small and it was difficult for me to pick a stick. Luckily, one stick fell out. #12. (2012.. fortune #12? Coincidence? I think not!)
Matched up to the proper drawer.
Fortune drawer.
I GOT BEST FORTUNE!!!! I’m not kidding when I say I did a little dance after I read it out loud to my mom. I was jumping up and down, extremely happy. I don’t know why, just reading it filled me with joy.
My brother got Good Fortune(a toned-down version of Best Fortune) also. Good day for us. 🙂
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“In every affair consider what precedes and what follows, and then undertake it.” by Epictetus.