Apparently, at various times during Japan’s long history of military archery, messages once travelled through the air in the form of yabumi (literally: ‘arrow text’),  a folded letter attached to an arrow that acted as a speedy – if dangerous – message delivery service.

This echo of a distant age seems to still have a lot of resonance in Japan, and you can find the yabumi image of a lengthways-folded message tied round an arrow frequently used as a metaphor or a historical bit of fun.

Anyway, someone has revived this tradition using an arrow with a strong magnet on the end – no bow required – and you may be able to buy it here if you can negotiate the process in Japanese. Although it should be pretty easy to make your own, or borrow someone else’s plans.

More information here!