Ema' is used to write your prayer on one side and you hang it in a special place in the shrine. It is much smaller these, and it has a picture of the animal of the year on one side. This year is a year of dragon. In front of this building, there is usually a small box where you put the offertory. Usually, the offertory box is much smaller and right in front of the main building, but on New Year's day, since there are so many people visit this shrine, this whole area is used for that purpose.
People throw money from the distance.
After you pray to the god for good fortune in the new year, you can draw a shrine lot called 'omikuji' in Japanese. It tells you what your new years will be like.