Shinto is Japan’s old native religion. The name means something like “the way of the gods” (or spirits). Those spirits are called kami: a mountain, a tree, a river, a shrine, or even a remarkable person may have one. There is no single holy book and no one founder. People visit shrines, bow, clap, and ask for cleanliness, luck, and good harvests. Though actually many Japanese people also go to Buddhist temples — New Year and some weddings may feel Shinto, funerals more Buddhist — and they do not always call themselves “Shintoists” the way someone might say “I am Christian.” For learners: it is Japan’s traditional path of honouring spirits in nature and in the land, not a church you join.