Tokyo Blog: Pure, Inside and Out

Did you know that most Japanese actually believe in 2 different religions? I certainly didn't! There's Shintoism and Buddhism, and they believe in both for different reasons. How does this relate to beauty, you ask? Read on....Shintoism deals with the here and now, while Buddhism relates to the afterlife. So, baptisms are performed at Shinto Temples, while funerals are at their Buddhist counter parts. In Shintoism, people worship nature and their ancestors, along with the gods who created the Japanese island. Everything has it's own spirit: trees, animals...even cars. A big part of Shintoism is purification, of the mind and body. Upon entering a Shinto Temple, we stopped at an ornate sink topped with water shooting from a bamboo spout and lots of cups with long handles (pictured). There, we washed our hands and mouths, to purify ourselves before paying respect. Sake is considered to purify the body on the inside, and the Japanese consider drinking it to be an "inner beauty" secret. In Japan, most paths are not dirt or pavement, but rather covered with gravel. This isn't an accident--it's done to create a soft swishy, crunchy noise that's thought to purify the mind. And here's the really interesting part: At many Shintu temples, there are places for people to drive their cars to have them blessed by Shintu priests, because even cars have sprits, and a blessing will give you good driving luck. In Akihabara, Tokyo's electronics district (where we found all those cool cell phones), there are "IT Shrines" where computers are blessed to protect them from viruses. Shintoism is starting to really make sense to me....