Tour Report of Meiji Shrine & Harajuku on April 21, 2024
- 2024.04.22
- Japan Pride 30th, Omikuji
Thank you to those who participated in the Tokyo Free Walking Tour (TFWT) at Meiji Shrine & Harajuku. We welcomed 8 guests from the USA, Canada, Australia, and Taiwan. We hope you all enjoyed and shared interesting and joyful conversations with each other during the tour. Unlike “Omikuji” (fortune telling slips) offered in most shrines, Meiji Shrine offers a very unique “Omikuji”. How unique? Most omikuji tell us good or bad luck concerning our daily life like health, money, love and so on. On the other hand, Meiji Jingu’s omikuji is the form of Waka poems. Waka poems are the Japanese traditional poems consisting of 31 syllables in the pattern of 5-7-5-7-7. These Waka poems included in omikuji were composed by Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken, both of whom are enshrined in the shrine. How to draw omikuji in the shrine: 1. Put ¥100 into the offering box. 2. After shaking a wooden box in order to mix well sticks inside, turn the box upside down. 3. Draw one wooden stick from the box. (There is a small hole so that only one stick can come out.) 4. After finding a number written on the stick, put it back into […]