Luck 「運」- Popular Good Luck Charms in Japan

People all around the world enjoy luck. Whether it’s gambling at a casino, a sweepstake drawing, or a simple every day superstition. People do ridiculous (laughable) things for a chance at luck.
In many places around the world, there is a popular superstition that a rabbit’s foot brings good luck.
Japan, especially, has loads of good luck charms. Here are just a few popular ones:
1. The Maneki Neko. They are often called “waving cats” in English because of the position of the paw, but in Japan, this gesture, with the palm facing down, is used to call someone toward you. You can often see these in store windows.
2. Daruma dolls. Daruma dolls are figurines modeled after the Bodhidharma [boh-di-duhr-muh], the monk who founded Zen Buddhism. When you buy them, the eyes are empty. You paint one eye and make a wish. When it comes true, you fill in the second eye to complete the pair. My Japanese friends gave me one of these as a good luck charm when I moved to a new house.
3. Omamori. These are lucky charms that you can buy at shrines or temples. They can be very specific depending on what you are looking for in protection or good luck. For example, safe driving, a healthy pregnancy and delivery, finding love, good grades, etc. Almost any need you can think of - a charm probably exists for it.
4. Omikuji. You can get an Omikuji at a shrine or temple in return for a small donation. If I were to give you a reference, Omikuji are like fortune cookies, but not at all. The range of fortunes are realistically wide; There are very bad fortunes too. If the fortune is good, you keep it and hang on to your luck. If the prophecy is bad, you tie the strip up on a wire or string at the shrine with the others and leave the bad luck behind you.
5. Ema are a common sight at many shrines or temples. They are small wooden plaques that people write their dreams and wishes on as a public declaration, and hope they one day come true.
6. Kit Kat chocolates. Kit Kat came to Japan in the early 1970s. The chocolate ended up being very successful for a few reasons. One was that the name sounded like the Japanese phrase “kitto katsu” which means “surely win.” As a result, the chocolate became a popular gift for students around exam time, and many still associate it with luck and good fortune.
Now, let’s take a look at a magic trick that uses a person as good luck.
Guest exchange student: Pla-tu (from Thailand)
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Meitoku Gijuku has almost 50% exchange students. Because of the diversity of students from every country, it uses a system called Moralogy to build student's virtue without interfering with beliefs. Moralogy has underlining ethical principles of logic from every religion.
Today's principle: Not proud of success, not sad at failure.