Ms. Fortune

Posted by ochancoco191 on September 17, 2011 · 1 Comment

9/17/11 16:11

Does a visit to 清水寺 [kiyomizu-dera] merit an entry? But of course.

I went to the shrine in between classes on Friday because I have one at 9 AM and another at 4 PM. It takes about 30 minutes by train to get to Kyoto from Hirakata so I figured, why the hell not. [As a side note: this is a great reasoning for many things. It makes your life more exciting, I promise.]

Besides taking pictures from the wooden terrace overlooking the city that the temple is famous for, you can do the normal praying, o-mikuji, o-mamori, and other temple-y things. Also at Kiyomizu—literally “pure water”—there is the 音羽滝, which is a fountain where you can drink the water for free and it’s supposed to prolong your life. Also, there is the “Love Stone.” It’s a set of two stones spaced quite a ways away from each other and legend says that if you successfully walk from one to the other with your eyes closed, you’ll find your soul-mate/match soon. If someone has to help you reach the stone, then it means that someone will have to help you find your lover. Fun bit of lore, really. And I would have tried it too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids if there weren’t so many schoolgirls crowded around the stones already.

Afterwards, we ate at a standing-room only udon stand [AHAHA, aha.], and wandered the covered 商店街　[shoutengai] (n.) shopping district/street. Mika also gave me a whole bunch of manga to read. All in all a great day. And then I had to hurry back to Hirakata to catch pop culture class at 4:40. -_-;;

~ ~

Oh, by the way, I got my fortune told at Kiyomizu.

凶. [kyou] That’s one of the bad ones. Not the worst, but the second worst before 大凶.

凶

このみくじにあう人は、諸事さわり多く、苦労絶えず。しかしながら心正しく信心深ければ後に運開くべし。今のところでは、土の中にうずもれたる玉のごとし。よろこびごとと急に見えず。待ち人来らず。病人長引けども本復すべし。ただし十分養生せねば変あるべし。失せ物出がたし。職業、商売は紙か、土か、木に緑ある識たるべし。争いごと負けなり。転居、ふしんなど秋にてよし。縁談ととのう。子宝多し。子に出世あるべし、大切に育ててよし。観音、薬師、わが星を祈りてよし。旅行いそぐべからず。

I waded through the mess of classical Japanese [I knew I took that Classical class for a reason!] and translated the fortune with the help of my host-mom, and it goes like this:

“To the person that receives this fortune, you will experience great obstacles and unending troubles. However, if you act with deep and honest devotion, soon, your fate will open up. As for now, it is like a gem buried deep in the earth. You will not quickly see happiness. The person [people?] you are waiting for will not come. You will experience a long-lasting sickness, but it will eventually heal. If you rest enough, things will change. Something you lose will not come back to you. As for work and sales, paper, earthenware, and wood [… something]. You will lose a fight. As for moving and construction, autumn would be a good time for that. A marriage proposal is in your future. You will have many children. They will be successful, but you must take care of them well. Pray to Kannon and Yakushi. You should not be in a hurry to travel.”

Oh really, temple? I’ll light some incense when I have a child, lol. I tied the omikuji to a post anyway. You don’t have to believe in 迷信 for it to be fun :P

~ ~

– As far as classes are going, my Reading/Writing teacher is personable and makes me feel comfortable. My speaking teacher, on the other hand makes me feel like I’m bad at Japanese. Like. Really bad. This is the first time in a while that I’ve felt that way and it’s a good wake up call because guess what. I really am bad at Japanese. Until I can go a day without faltering when a shop-clerk asks me if I’ve signed up for their store’s discount plan, feeling completely useless when listening to the folks blithering away about japanese politics on tv, or completely missing the meaning of a kanji compound because I know every character except that last one, I will pin my language skill at “mediocre.”

– I’m in that weird stage where I’m caught between being a tourist and being a member of Japanese society. There are things I still marvel at and things that surprise me, but every day I’m getting used to life here. Do note that when I say “member of Japanese society,” I don’t mean that I am a Japanese. I am a foreign student that functions and works in Japan. Some people I’ve seen act as if they’ve actually become Japanese. That’s absurd. You can walk and talk like them, but you’re fundamentally different and I feel like society reminds you every day of that fact.

~ ~

But on a lighter note…

Fun fact of the day!

– えのき [enoki] (n.) They’re small Japanese mushrooms that are often included in my host-mom’s cooking. I’ll grab a pic from google images to show you.

Well, anyway. Among other things like corn kernels and heavy metals, enoki is indigestible. This means that it comes out in your excrement. Needless to say, that’s really scary. They sort of look like worms.