The Festooned Pine At a Shinto shrine, white paper slips, omikuji, knotted to a pine— sacred ballots of the kami, forming a strange origami. Andrew Lansdown   Omikuji Blossom As at other shrines fortune papers are knotted on twiggy branches— but this time their colour varies, being pink to match the cherries. Andrew Lansdown     Pact   i It requires teamwork to foil a foetus—just ask Mummy and her quack.   ii And so enwombed has for many babies come to mean entombed.   iii Hitler-Stalin Pact— less malign than the modern Mother-Doctor Pact. Andrew Lansdown   A…