Here's another use of paper--omikuji. These are paper fortunes that you can purchase at shrines or temples. If the fortune is bad, you can tie it to something within the precincts of the shrine or temple; that will bind the karma of the fortune to the site itself, freeing you from the predicted outcome. In her history of the fortune cookie, Jennifer 8. Lee has suggested that the "Chinese" fortune cookie originated in Japan, and the paper slip inside was originally an omikuji-style fortune.
This is Lee's delightful lecture on the origins of "Chinese food":
