I heard a wooden clatter sound from round the corner and went looking. These are Little wooden prayer discs called "Enma". You write your wish on them, hang them up, and the little horse picture (usually) on the other side takes them off to the gods. The weird thing is that in tourist areas, about 60% of them are from foreigners, 30% of them are from kids (things like "make me a fairy princess when I grow up"), and only about 10% are from "normals". You're not really meant to read other people's, but I snoop terribly. Nothing SO interesting in this batch, mainly wishes for world peace. The best I've seen was the one wishing god's assistance in delivering a crushing defeat for Chelsea in last years euro-cup.