Dear All!
May I share with you a nice cultural experience. On July 14, 2004, after placing a coin, I picked a "message from the Emperor / Empress," at the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo.
Most warmly!
Evelin

The piece of paper that I received entailed the following personal message:

Never turn aside from the road that your convictions tell you to follow, whatever obstacles you must surmount on the way. Be true to yourself.

The piece of paper entailed also a poem by Empress Shoken:

Cut, if need be, through thick briars,
Knots and brambles, tangled thorns,
For the path that's yours to follow
Must be trodden to the end.
(Shigeritaru ubara karatachi haraitemo
Fumubaki michi wa yukubekari keri)

The paper commented this poem as follows:

Omikuji (Poem-Drawing):
This poem was composed, in the traditional 31-syllable form, by either the Emperor Meiji or the Empress Shoken. It is hoped that the poem's message will have particular meaning for you.

The paper explained, furthermore, the poetry of the Emperor Meiji and the Empress Shoken:
The Emperor Meiji was especially fond of composing poems in the traditional waka (31-syllable) form, and left a collection of 100,00 of them to his people. The Empress Shoken joined the Emperor in this art, and is said to have composed 30,000 herself. Many of these Imperial poems, such as the present one, express explicit or implicit ethical admonitions in the Shinto tradition.