Good Grades: $30 ; Good Marriage: $5

In Japan it is not uncommon to turn the corner in a block of medium-rise residential/shopping developments and find yourself standing in front of a traditional old-school temple. Like this one.
This is actually a mini-temple. It contains a Japanese garden with a bridge a la Monet, several highly sculpted trees, and a pond with floating Sakura petals and this little detail. A daddy (or mummy) turtle doubling as a water fountain, with baby turtle wandering off in the other direction. I found that black-and-white shows the baby turtle in better contrast.

Also, right outside it is this.

Jars of Freshwater Crane brand rice-based alcohol for sale (warm) through a vending machine. Very convenient. The machine is quite old, and while nowadays there would be a Taspo-like technology deployed, there is just a sign saying "Please don't buy this if you're under-age". This also tells us that warm-vending technology has been around for a while, but in Europe it is apparently too difficult.

So we now are ready to go to the main temple.

Of course, the statutory cherry blossoms are here.

But there also is a lot of hanging boards.

These are Ema, or "picture-horses". They are wooden boards on which you write your wish and hang it up here. They don't have horses on them. Here it seemed that everyone wanted good exam results. Really, absolutely everyone. I couldn't find a single wish about money, safety, family etc. All exams and good school results. It later transpired that this temple specialises in exam results.

And that is why they have a big sign saying "Omamori, Ema and Shinsatsu for Exam-passing (for passing exams), increasing school scores (for increasing your grades at school), 3000 Yen".

An Omamori is a talisman for a given purpose, a Shinsatsu is a big wooden board they give you to give you extra luck.

The 3000 Yen ($30) is per item. There are no package deals available. Also, if your good luck charm worked, they ask you to come back to the temple to bless the charm. That costs 2000 Yen.

As you can see by the volume of Ema, this is a good business, especially during times of uncertainty. If you could choose, you would want to be the monk in the temple specialising in business-related worries. Possibly the ultimate anti-cyclical positioning.

Here is a list of Omamori available.

Regular Omamori: 800 Y (I bet no one has ever got this. This must be there just to highlight the value of the Good-Grades Omamori)
Anti-bad stuff Omamori: 1000Y
Safety while commuting to school Omamori: 1000Y (likely a favourite with parents)
Travel and commuting Omamori: 1000Y
Good marriage Omamori: 500Y (the cheapest on there)
Safe birth Omamori: 1000Y
Golden destiny Omamori: 1000Y (the value pick)
Disease recovery Omamori: 1500Y
Commuting Omamori (sticker, large): 1000Y
Commuting Omamori (sticker, small): 800Y
Happiness Bell: 700Y

And, since you are there, you can check the list of bad stuff years. This is a list of ages of men (left) and women (right). If you are this age minus one (i.e. if you are 24, 41, 60 etc.), then this is a bad year for you, and you must come to the temple and seek remedial action. At the basic level this involves buying an Anti-bad stuff Omamori, but further consultation and prayers are available.