Wow, looks like you had a great trip!
I can answer this question for you:
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Never figured out what was in these, although they seemed to be present at quite a few temples.
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Those are kegs of sake. The manufacturers each send a representative sample of that year's batch to the temple to be blessed. By blessing the representative keg, it is supposed to extend to the rest of the batch and make it tasty and profitable. At least, that's what my Japanese friends told me when I asked about them...