If the omikuji are to be trusted, the prospects for Sayoko Hackler, Kelsey Yoshikami and their 1-year-old son Kolten in 2019 are pretty positive — perhaps not outrageously so, but certainly not bad at all.
“Mine says ‘quite good,’ ” said Hackler as she read from the paper fortune-telling strip she’d received at Tuesday’s New Year’s blessing ceremony at Daijingu Temple in Nuuanu.
“‘Fairly good,’” said Yoshikami, reading from his.
Hackler considered this for a second.
“I think it’s because we’ve already got everything we hoped for,” she said. “So it’s good to spread it around.”
Yoshikami, holding a content and smiling Kolten in his arms, nodded in agreement.
About 4,000 people were expected to stop by the 115-year-old Shinto temple between New Year’s Eve evening and mid-afternoon New Year’s Day to receive a traditional Shinto blessing from the Rev. Akihiro Okada and other designated priests and priestesses.
At noon Tuesday, despite a light but persistent rain, more than 100 people were lined up in the entrance and courtyard of the shrine. Outside a dozen cars were lined up for parking at Nuuanu Valley Park.
The queue of visitors moved slowly but amiably through the courtyard to the shrine and back along a pair of pathways lined with booths stocked with omomori and ofuda (good-luck amulets). For donations between $2 and $10, visitors could take home amulets ensuring protection for children or pets, success in business or academic pursuits, safety during travel or any number of specific blessings.
For Yoshikami, a carpenter, an annual trip to the temple is family tradition passed along to him by his mother. He brought Hackler with him for the first time several years ago, and now she brings her own parents along, as well.
Yoshikami said the event has become noticeably more crowded in recent years, a fact he attributes to the publicizing prowess of social media.
Tuesday saw Stacia Murray’s first visit to the shrine, an excursion that served as the extension of a bit of cultural exchange between herself and friend Kim Burnett, 42.
The previous day, Murray, who is part Korean, invited her friends to join in her annual tradition of preparing New Year’s mandoo.
On Tuesday, she joined Burnett and her family for a traditional Japanese New Year’s meal of kuromame and nishime, then accepted their invitation to come to the shrine.
Murray brought along her dog, Bobby, who celebrated his fourth birthday with a traditional Japanese blessing and a chance to socialize with dozens of other pets at the site.
Val Mariano, 59, was part of a three-generation group that made the trip to Nuuanu with Murray and Burnett. In addition to receiving a blessing, she also made sure to pick up omomori for her two sons.
“I got for the car, house — the whole shebang,” she said.
“It’s a nice way to start the new year with family, getting a nice blessing and feeling at peace,” she said.
Kylie Pagampao, 24, introduced her husband Craig, 25, to the annual blessing three years ago. They came this year with their 4-year-old son, Chasen.
Craig Pagampao, a mechanic who rode his share of ups and downs in 2018, found in his omikuji a bit of enticing ambiguity: “Thanks to the breeze, young grass has begun to put forth shoots.”
His wife found her blessing much easier to interpret.
“It said I have to have patience in everything,” she said, laughing. “I have no patience.”