Hi everyone. I’m currently at the tail end of my trip to japan and I went to a temple and got my fortune. I tried using an app to decipher what the fortune says, but it doesn’t give me a great translation that makes sense. Anyone help with this?
It says: “You will post an image of some Japanese writing on an online forum and no one will decipher it for you because even the kana characters are almost illegible due to the photo being taken from too far away and there being crumbs of food all over it.”
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If you click it, then click it again, it gets nice and large. Also looks like the ‘crumbs’ are gold speckles in the paper.
@Jonhogn Have you tried posting this on HiNative? Might get a good response there.
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Ah, so it does. Interestingly, my most recent one said: “You will get your comeuppance while being a smartarse on an internet forum.”
(They do seem to give some specific advice about forum use these days, don’t they?)
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Where did you get this from? Every temple I got my fortune at had English at least saying “Good, Bad, etc fortune” although the rest wasn’t translated.
Yeah the paper doesn’t have any crumbs on it. I may be a little messy at times. But I assure you that the paper is completely clean. There are just gold specs on it. I don’t know any japanese and my brother said that this place would be decent to post on. He’s studied a lot but cant figure it out either
Your brother’s right - people are usually very helpful.
What does the very top part say, by the way? That’s usually where the basic “big luck” / “luck” / “bad luck” category is written. If you post that, someone should at least be able to tell you if it’s generally a good or bad fortune.
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Ooooo, cool task appeared!
Here’s the LUCK-part
運勢
最初は危なく心配な事がありますが、神代の心さながらにお詣りすれば、決して？うてとはありません。後には何事も卒知に収まります。総て小さなてとにも注意して進めば 幸福が開けます。
I won’t touch the full translation yet, as I’m missing a few kanji.
願望：初心に返り励めば万事順調に叶えられます。
Hopes: If you strive to respond to your initial resolutions, everything you hoped for will come true.
待人：来るが、遅れます。
Person being waited for OR person who waits: They will come, but they’ll be late.
恋愛：自地共に反省し御護りの神様に祈れば結ばれる。
Love: 自地共 → found no translation. The kanji are self-Earth-together. Wild guess here, but maybe in this context the translation could be something like “if you reflect on how your respective worlds fit together and pray to the God of protection, you can successfully be wedded.”
縁談：神様のご加護のより幸福な縁を授かります。
Marriage proposal: Based on God’s divine protection, you will be awarded with a happy bond/relationship.
お産：早産の憂いあり 神様のお守りを受けましょう
Birth: A premature birth will bring unhappiness. Let’s receive a protective amulet (kamisama no o-mamori)
進学：努力が報われます。
Studies: Great effort will be rewarded.
就職：誠意が認められ叶う。
Finding employment: Sincerity will be recognized (aka given recognition).
金運：あれこれ迷うと金が逃げます
Money: Be it one thing or another, wavering will cause money to escape.
LAST SECTION:
仕事一筋にせよ - Even if one only lives for work
家庭：妻は夫を、夫は妻を大切にせよ 幸運がくる
→ household: granted that the wife will take good care of the husband, and the husband will take good care of his wife, good fortune will come.
病気：次第に快くなります
→ illness: you will gradually become comfortable.
旅行：急ぐと悪し、暫く待て
→ travel: hurrying is bad - wait a little while.
事業：他に手を出すと失敗する
→ work: getting involved with other things will cause failure.
？？：北東と南 ・ 吉 ・ 九と三
→ ??: northeast and south. Kanji for “good fortune”. 9 and 3. (ahh, a mystery)
訴訟：和解の道を選びなさい
→ litigation: choose the path of settlement.
転居：よし 支障なし進めよ
→ moving (aka changing the place to live): It will proceed well and without difficulties.
失物：出ます ・丁寧に探せ
→ lost things: Leaving / Will leave (doesn’t state if it’s the things or you). Carefully/courteously search (imperative form here).
相場（賭）：利益あれど続かず
→ Speculation (gambling): I’m not familiar with あれど. What I get is “Gainsあれどwithout continuing” sooooo… (someone take this one over)
Oh! And please correct me if I’m wrong!!
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Can’t really help much, but I can see the mystery kanji you missed. There’s actually 2 columns there.
The words there are: 吉数 and 方位. 吉数 is a lucky number (http://wpedia.goo.ne.jp/wiki/吉数 couldn’t find an actual dictionary entry). 方位 is a compass direction (Jisho.org: Japanese Dictionary).
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Great! So that’s why the kanji were so weird! Hahah, i thought there were just 2 kanji and couldn’t figure out why something seemed off about them. 
You didn’t happen to catch the last mystery-kanji in the first “hand-written” paragraph? It looks familiar, but I just can’t wrap my head around it. 3rd column, last kanji with a waterslide-radical.
Looks to me like 迷. Jisho.org: Japanese Dictionary
I think it’s 清
What kind of paper is that on that makes it textured like that? That, and the fact that it’s not fully flat and so therefore some parts aren’t quite in focus, make it a bit more difficult to read. If you can take it again as 3-4 pictures (each section closer up) it may aid us in translating it for you. : D
Ahh, I think you’re right. Do you agree on the previous being 決?
Had a hard time with that one also, so not 100% certain.
@katiesaccount
I initially ignored the 千早振る -paragraph yet (the very first one) and hence ended up asking my question wrong. :b I meant the second paragraph, in retrospect… haha.
Yeah, I think so. I did look at the whole handwritten text now and here’s my changes (can’t bold so just put the stars next to changes):
最初は危うく心配な事がありますが、神代の心さながらにお詣りすれば、決して迷うことはありません。後には何事も平知に収まります。総て小さなことにも注意して進めば 幸運が開けます。
Here’s also the first paragraph as far as I can see:
千早振る
神代ながらに身を清め
御祖の神を
拝み
まつる
Thanks to everyone who has helped me so far. I really appreciate it. I haven’t been on in a couple days, so i didn’t see all the replies. I uploaded each section separately through replies. The site is a little weird with my picture files. I have to downgrade the quality in order for the file size to be under the file limit, so the quality might not be the best. Thanks again!