The Japanese way to deal with stress: fortunetelling
“Fortune-telling is the practice of predicting the future, usually of an individual, through mystical or supernatural means and often for commercial gain.”
That is the straight-forward, uncompromising description that wikipedia offers anyone interested in this activity. Yet, unappealing as it may sound in black and white, it is said that there is hardly anyone in Japan that doesn’t consult with, believe in or thinks about their fortune.
This article describes a surge in clients that a fortune telling website has seen since the economic turmoil. But this isn’t showing that more Japanese are seeking their fortune. It merely shows they are doing it in a more modern way.
After dark, fortune tellers become an ingrained part of the scenery in Tokyo. Some popular types of fortunetelling are:
- Teso, or reading hands
- Seimeihandan, which is a method to read the future from the Japanese characters of their name
- Omikuji, the Japanese fortune cookie-type pieces of paper with advice, your future or luck on it
If you are raising your eyebrows as to the scientific evidence, there is one fortune teller that quite agrees. In this revealing interview, he says: “It’s a silly question. It doesn’t matter for us. It is more important for fortune-tellers to be trusted by clients and turn them into repeat customers.”
Right. I guess a publicly written encyclopedia is quite reliable after all…
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