Having a Religion in Japan
Dedication doesn’t make you a cult member
It was 10 p.m. on New Year’s Eve… which means if it was any other temple like the Meiji Jingū Shrine or Zōjō-ji, we’d have been lining up for hours to pray at the altar, or to buy an omamori amulet at the counter.
And considering we’d been wandering for two hours on empty stomachs in the cold winter wind — right after coming home from our three-day trip to Kamakura — it’s fortunate that there were only a couple of families in line. That is, other than the small crowd of locals pounding mochi a ways behind us.
Accompanied by the rhythmic chants of the mochi pounders, I pull up an article on proper praying etiquette as my friend drops a ¥10 coin into the offering box (we’re all out of ¥5 coins).
Two bows, two claps, prayer, one bow. Standing off to the side, I remind myself to pray only once midnight strikes — as per my religion’s custom — as the yosha-yosha of the mochi pounders drifts into the dark sky overhead…
The Dos and Don’ts
When I say to people “I have a religion,” their first reaction is often “oh,” perhaps followed…
