At Aoba Jinja

 This appears to be a Buddhist pagoda but it seems to be on the grounds of the Shinto shrine. Over the years, especially just before and during WW2, Buddhism and Shinto became mixed. The priests will even substitute for each other in cases where a shrine or a temple has no one to look after it.

 These are little, about 10 cm wide, pieces of wood on which people will write their wishes. They are then left for the gods of the shrine, who hopefully will help make them come true. They are called ema, or picture horse, in Japanese. I used to know the derivation of the name but it escapes me at the moment.

 The ema are tied to horizontal boards under a roof. Here on the right, people have left the white sheets of paper that contain their fortune. You buy these from the shrine for 50 to 200 yen, and after looking at them, you tie them to a tree or often a specially construction of ropes tied between to poles. The idea is that the local gods will help a god fortune actually come about and, if you have a bad prediction, the gods will help keep it from being actualized.

 Under this roof is a fountain where you can purify yourself before approaching the shrine building. The bulletin board on the right contains instructions for doing this. You always wash your hands and sometimes you also rinse your mouth and maybe even wash your face.

 The water outlet is almost always in the form of a dragon. This is the one from the above picture.

This is the bell rope, in the middle with the colored cloth, and beyond it stairs up to the entrance to the building. In the front is a large box for coins, gifts for the gods. People seldom give more than 100 yen and even 1 yen coins are common. I guess the point is that the gods are not physical so they really have no use for money. It is the thought that counts. As  you can see onright, the stairs were blocked by a fence so I was unable to get much closer.