Dreams

Recently, I have been having funny dreams. I don’t remember the whole things but I remember only a few things really clearly.

Dream.1 — I am in a department store. There are two short escalators side by side at the center of the floor and no one is there. I am watching the escalators, but I don’t use them. I’m just watching. It seems like I am at a department store in a foreign country, not in Japan. There is no sure proof, but for some reason, I am sure that I am at the Bloomingdale’s in NYC in my dream. In the dream, I knew that it was Bloomingdale’s because of the escalators. I don’t know why. Next, I am running around the department store from the top floor to the ground floor. I seem to be looking for something hard, very hard.

Dream.2 — my eyes are wide open and I am shouting in my head, “Wow, what a big contact lens!” Then I’m excitedly staring into somebody’s eye, which has a huge contact lens. It’s the same size as a plate, about 20 cm in diameter. In my dream, I totally think for sure her contact lens is huge, even though her eye isn’t the same size. It’s a just regular sized eye. I am still taking a long look at her eye with great interest.

I don’t know why I was sure that I was at the Bloomingdale’s in NYC. I don’t know why I knew her contact was so big without any sign of the magnitude of the contact lens. Even though these paradoxical situations happen all the time in my dreams, I am interested in why I dreamed those kinds of strange stories. The first one is actually a recurring dream. Then I started checking an oneiromancy, dream interpretation, website. I entered some key words from my dream — “escalator,” “huge contact lens” and more… According to the website, these are the results:

Escalator — it’s a sign that the changes in circumstances surrounding you will come or it’s a sign of the aspiration to change your current situation. Stepping on an up escalator shows positive changes, on a down escalator shows negative changes.

 

 

Department store — it shows that you are making a choice now. If you can’t make a decision of what to buy or can’t find what you want at a department store that means you have doubts about your life or hesitate to keep doing the same things.

 

                                                                      

                                                                  

  

Foreign country — it shows that you are trying to do something new now.

 

Searching — it’s a sign that you are searching for your goal in life or want to find something to live for. Not knowing what you’re looking for in a dream means you’re trying to look into your heart.

Running around — it’s a sign of that you are having a difficult problem now and you are mentally on the run.

 

Huge contact lens — it’s a motif that mainly women often dream. It symbolized that you are pressed for time or you are not relaxed.

 

                                                     

 

 

Hmm… looks like I’m in a bit of a rut now. In fact, I feel like I’ve been at a crossroads in my life since about 15 months ago. But, I have been pretending not to notice it for a long time. Maybe it is time to accept what is happening to me now. The weird dreams are making me realize this.

Dreams — they seem so meaningless, but they’re truly amazing!

Friday the 13th

Today is Friday the 13th. It is called “A bad luck day”, in the world. Many paraskevidekatriaphobes, people who fear Friday the 13th, might not want to do anything new, different from the usual or to make a big decision, because they think that Friday the 13th has a power to make them unhappy.

In Japan, we have a famous fortune for the day called “Rokuyo(六曜).”It is often written on calendars. The Rokuyo consists of 6 kinds of fortunes: “Sensho or Senkachi(先勝)”, “Tomobiki(友引)”, “Senbu or Senmake(先負)”, “Butsumetsu(仏滅)”, “Taian or Daian(大安)”, “Shakku or Shakkou(赤口).” Each fortune has a different meaning. Many Japanese care about the Rokuyo when they arrange a date of a big event, such as a wedding ceremony, moving, a funeral or when they make a deal.

Weddings and funerals are very important dates in Japan. Many Japanese want to hold their wedding parties on a day of Taian, when they trust the best day to do everything. So, on Saturday and Sunday of the Taian day, wedding centers are fully booked up. On the contrary, on a day of Butsumetsu, people can hold a wedding much cheaper than usual since the day is believed to be an unlucky day. By the same token, we avoid having a funeral on a Tomobiki day. Tomobiki is trusted as a day where the same things will happen to their friends. In Japanese, Tomo(友) means a friend and biki(引) means dragging or pulling. We know it’s a superstition but just in case Japanese don’t have a funeral on Tomobiki day; if a friend will die after the funeral…no way!

In the world, there must be many evil days like Friday the 13th and Butsumetsu. We know those are superstitions but some of us can’t stop caring about them. However, we can’t do anything if we trust every bad luck day all around the world. So, I think that we creatively use those kinds of fortunes or superstitions as we like. We care about them when we can, and we try to forget about them when we can’t, like fortune telling.

In my case, I only care about them when I have to sign a very important contract or moving, visiting my ancestors’ grave — I try to sign a contract or moving on Taian day, and not to visit the grave on Butsumetsu day. Then, maybe I just want to use them as an excuse for when some bad things happen to me. I think there are many people in the world who have the same thinking like mine; we usually to try to find a cause of our mistakes or our bad situations outside of ourselves.

When a really bad thing will happen to me, maybe I can’t accept the truth at that moment because I might be too upset. I will be helped by thinking things like “What’s happened with me? I didn’t do anything wrong. I was OK. Maybe I was unlucky or that day just wasn’t my day!” From the beginning, I can’t think that a part of my attitude or behavior makes the cause of my bad situation, even though they made it. Yet, as time ticks away, I can find and acknowledge the real cause. Facing up to the fact is not the only way to recognize the current situation. Sometimes, escaping from reality and taking time out to get a grip on ourselves mentally help people to know the cause of the failure. It’s never too late, if I can know why the things happened and what the cause of that was, and I will make use of them next time.

Nobody is perfect. We can’t accept our weakness and faults at all times. Sometimes we want to refuse to face the reality, even though we admit our own faults. At such times, we need an excuse — “I made a mistake because today is a Butsumetsu day.” “Yesterday was Friday the 13th, that’s why I lost my cell phone. Not because I was drunk!” Depending on the situation, the evil days become an excuse to escape from a reality that is too tough, but it smells a bit fishy.

By some definition, it is strange that I can feel like Friday the 13th and Butsumetsu are lovely days. I noticed just now, today is Friday the 13th and also a Butsumetsu day… eeeeeeeeek!