Shinto worshipers may pray for health, love, or happiness. In addition to prayers, worshipers may offer coins or flowers to the kami. It is also traditional for infants to be brought to a Shinto shrine when they are one month old. We saw a father, mother, and grandmother with a baby boy at the shrine praying for a good life for their child. The baby was wrapped in a beautiful Kimono and since he was a boy, he had the Chinese character of big painted on his forehead.
Baby girls receive the Chinese character for small.
At Shinto shrines we also saw rows of wooden placards hand painted with Japanese characters and pictures. Each of these placards were wishes that people brought to the shrine to leave with the gods. A student may wish to do well on exams or in a sporting event. Young adults may hope to be lucky in love or marriage. We also encountered trees or dangling cords with pieces of paper tied to them.