<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“Hey, you! Show some respect! This is a shrine, not a park.â€</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">Akiko glanced over her shoulder to see one of the guards bearing down on a group of young women who had been giggling together, taking photos in front of the hot spring on their cell phones. Now, however, they were looking confused, and a little worried.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“I don’t suppose you even purified yourselves, much less paid your respects to the kami.â€</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">Akiko stifled a sigh and turned back to the people she’d been talking to.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“Please excuse me.â€ They nodded, the problem being as obvious to them as to her, and she left them to hurry over.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“Get over to the water basin and purify yourselves. Go on, now.â€ The guard wasn’t exactly shouting, but he was talking as if they were naughty children.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“Thank you. I’ll deal with it now,â€ Akiko said as she came up to the women, trying to put as much authority as she could into the glare she shot at the guard. He stopped short, then nodded curtly and strode off back to the entrance. Akiko breathed a sigh of relief, and turned back to the women. What was she going to say? The guard hadn’t actually been wrong in what he said, after all.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“I’m sorry,â€ she started. “He means well, but he does need to work on his attitude to visitors.â€ She smiled and bowed a little as she spoke, and as she straightened up, the women looked rather more relaxed. “Would you like me to show you how to do the purification?â€</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">They glanced at each other; clearly they hadn’t actually been thinking about the shrine as a religious site. Then one nodded, and the others joined her. Akiko led them over to the water basin, and showed them how to pour the water over their hands. She was reminded of when Shiraishi had had to show her; it seemed a very long time ago, now.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">The women paid their respects, then got Akiko to take a picture of all of them in front of the pool before leaving the shrine, giggling among themselves again. Thinking about the guard’s actions, Akiko looked around for Shiraishi, and had just found her, talking to some more visitors, when there was a shout from the steps.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“You are <em>not</em> going in!â€ Akiko closed her eyes for a moment as she sighed, and then turned to hurry to the steps, Shiraishi just behind her.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">The guards had formed a human wall across the steps, easy enough to do, blocking a man whom Akiko recognised as one of the more frequent protesters. She looked around for Mrs Watanabe, wondering what sort of trouble she was trying to stir up this time, but there was no sign of her.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“Look, let me pass. I’m not going to cause trouble.â€</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“Too right you’re not. You’re staying out here.â€</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">The man caught sight of Akiko and Shiraishi, and bowed to them. Before Akiko could recover from that shock, he addressed the priest.</p>
<p style="margin: 8.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 28.0px; font: 13.0px Optima;">“Revd Shiraishi, could I ask you for a purification ceremony?â€</p>