Ema (絵馬) are votive tablets upon which you write wishes you’d like granted. Then you hang them up at a shrine and cross your fingers that the kami (god) who lives there gets around to checking your dreams off his or her to-do list.

The best thing about them is that their evolution – the kanji literally means ‘horse picture’. A long, long time ago, you’d give a horse as a present to get your wish. Then that evolved into a picture of a horse, seeing as how horses are kind of pricey, then that evolved into just really a picture of whatever the shrine feels like.