After leaving the streets of Harajuku, we entered the silent wooded world of the Meiji-Jingu Shinto Shrine. It feels a little like a Buddhist temple, but Shintoism is different, though isn't really considered a religion today. It was however the religion of Japan at one point. Denise, the woman we met up with, told us that Shintoism was the religion of the upper class, to differentiate them from the plain folks, though I didn't see that in Wikipedia.
Shinto is a shamanic practice, with rituals to harmonize the relations of humans and nature spirits. There's a great love and reverence for nature - so a waterfall, the moon, trees, or an oddly shaped rock and even wild people or characters might be regarded as a a spirit filled entity.
Below is a video of a Shinto wedding.
You'll see the shrine gates are flanked by sake barrels on one side and wine barrels on the other donated by companies throughout Japan and the world to signify bringing of gods and people together. In Japan's oldest texts, the word used for sake is miki, written with the characters for 'god' and 'wine.' People would go a shrine festival and be given rice wine to drink, and they would feel happy and closer to the gods. I knew wine was spiritual. Rice wine, grape wine...
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