Japan: This photograph shows a Shinto shrine to be found at Puroland, Sanrio's indoor theme park at Tama New Town, near Tokyo. It's the type of portable shrine that can be seen being paraded around towns during festivals. This one enshrines a very special goddess—Hello Kitty herself.

This shrine is not the only religious experience to be had at Puroland. The centrepiece of the establishment is the enormous Wisdom Tree. A path winds up the tree, alongside which are small shrines and altars to the various Sanrio characters. At the very top, you go inside the tree and encounter yet another shirine. This one is Hello Kitty's Bell of Happiness. There appears to be no source of water for ritual purification (maybe nothing is impure once it has entered Kitty's domain?) but, apart from that, the ritual is the same as at any other Shinto shrine. You approach the altar, and ring the bell, bow a couple of times, then clap your hands twice, then bow again. There is no collecting box in front of the altar but, as at many other Shinto shrines, you can buy an ema - a special card - on which you write your wish and hang up on a special frame located nearby.