L'omikuji 御御籤 and the prediction of Fortune

In ultra-modern Japan, where everyone runs and lives a busy life, the Japanese still stop in the temples to pray and find out what the future holds for them thanks to the omikuji, the sheets that predict luck.
Omikuji, also called mikuji み く じ, is a divinatory leaflet, which we find in all Shinto and Buddhist temples in Japan. A "prediction" that includes love, work, life and health.

The choice of the leaflet is blind, therefore "guided" by the divinity of the place that "chooses" for you which is the path that will indicate your fate. For those who believe in them, these predictions help to move forward, consolidate certainties or anticipate more or less serious worries and problems. For those that don't believe in these things, they become an experience to do when visiting a temple, and keep the leaflet as a sort of souvenir.

The Japanese are very attached to these things, just think of the Omamori お守り the small amulets for every need that you can find in any temple, usually in the same place where to take the sheets for divination, inseparable companions for every Japanese.

The most common ones are the sealed single sheets, they have the lowest costs, but  usually depends on the temple where you take them because in some places the cost can go up. You choose these tickets yourself and once opened, you will discover what the fate or God of the place has prepared for you.

You may have sew another type of "divination" that don't involve drawing the card directly, but thanks to "fate", there is an "indirect" indication. In this case the "divine will" acts thanks to a wooden cylinder (the most modern ones also made of metal or aluminum) where inside there are some sticks contained. Shaking the container from the hole, one with an imprinted number will come out. In the "chest of drawers" in front of you take a look for the number that came out and take the leaflet with the prediction.

The leaflet you'll receive at the top of it (depends on the temple) contains indications of good luck, small fortune, bad luck or great luck. Below you can read the separate predictions for love, work, health and life in general. After read it if the prediction reports bad luck or fair luck, then you can hangs it on a tree nearby, or in the spaces that the temple has prepared. In this way the bad prediction will be purified over time by the energy of the temple.

I'm sure many of you have tried it, and I hope it went well :), tell us about your experience. Among other things, there are some temples and shrine, the most known and visited ones, that have the leaflets in both Japanese and English, therefore much simpler and encourages you more to try because you'll not need to ask someone to translate them.