Updates and corrections

Shimenawa Wreath
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I have asked many people the following questions and thought I would update on the answers I have received:

Apparently the freaky military prison looking building is part of the Atagoyama camp ground facility.  Seems like a very warm and welcoming place to go camping.

Apparently people only ring bells at temples on New Years, not at Shrines.  So the tiny building with the old woman and the little boy ringing the bell must have been a temple.  I am just a gaijin, what do I know?  But, I guess there was a severe lack of paper and rope that I should have noticed.

Shimenawa charm
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And the bags and bags of things thrown into the huge bin at the Takedajinja shrine were not offerings at all.  At the begining of every year people buy many charms or talismans that they hang in their houses (and cars and probably everywhere) for good luck and safety.  They believe that the luck only lasts one year and so at the end of each year they bring them to the shrine where they throw them in that pit for the shrine to burn and they buy a new one either at the shrine itself, from stores, or from the small huts that set up on the streets at this time of year to sell nothing but these.  Some people also just have a big bonfire at their houses and burn them there.

Shimenawa charm
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So the only offerings being given were the coins being thrown over the white barrier.  This also explains why so many people were leaving with the "offerings"...

I have a lot to learn about Japanese culture.

Oh, and by the way, today was a good day...