In another group someone asked whether shintô was religion or spirituality. From my viewpoint spirituality is internal — it's your connections to kami; to the ancestors; to great nature; to the sacred; to all that is wonderful, awe-inspiring, and magical in the world.

Religion is external — it's all the practices you engage in that express those connections and what they mean to you.

Like all folk religions, shintô has both spiritual and religious sides.

Without the spiritual, religion becomes a series of empty, meaningless acts; and without religious practices we have no way of sharing our connections with those we care about.