Naomi doesn't look like a man-eater.
Yet because she was born in 1966, the Year of the Fiery Horse, Japanese tradition says she is destined to devour her husband and bring bad luck and conflagrations to any house unlucky enough to receive her as a bride."Certainly this is something that comes up when it's time to get married. You know any prospective husband's family will mention it," she said.
"I don't know anyone born in that year, but many bad things happen then, so the idea is a little scary," said another woman in her 20s.
Ultramodern, high-tech Japan remains in some ways a deeply superstitious place. People routinely avoid giving anything in units of four, for example, because one pronunciation of that word is a homonym for death.
Naomi, and around a million other hapless young Japanese, share the fate of having been born in the unluckiest year of the Japanese zodiac, a 60-year cycle that combines the 12-year animal zodiac of China with the five elements of wood, water, earth, metal (gold), and fire.
Adding the traits attributed to each animal with the properties ascribed to each element yields a detailed, and complicated, reading of each year.
The Fiery Horse Year, or "Hinoeuma," has fire as its element, summer as its season, red as its color, and the horse as its animal. Over time, this came to be seen as a year of fire and calamity, with people born in it strong-willed and occasionally violent, like their animal namesake.
In contrast, while 1996 is the "Year of the Fire Mouse" and shares many of the same properties, possible disaster is neutralized by the timid nature of its guiding animal.
"Whenever I have a disagreement with anybody, especially at work, you can always bet that my boss will say, 'Of course, you're Hinoeuma,"' Naomi said.
Being born as a Fiery Horse is little more than a curiosity for men. Although in some rural areas of Japan they are said to be ridiculous and easily confused, more widespread belief has it that they may be more successful than average.
But women were traditionally said to be doomed to a loveless, single life, as Japanese men shied away from marriage to anyone bearing that much bad luck - or that strong a will.
"I was always told it was good I wasn't born a girl, and I think so, too. This way I get the notoriety of being Hinoeuma without any of the bad connotations," said one man.
"The idea really just seems to be that a strong woman is bad, although a strong man is good," said Takanobu "Tony" Oikawa, chairman of the recently founded Japan Hinoeuma Association.
"But now nobody really believes it, it is just something to pin on especially strong women," he added.