Dozens of people soaked and splashed themselves in painfully icy cold water in a pool at a Tokyo shrine, adhering to Japanese ...

The Meiji Shrine is a Shinto (Japan's original religion ... Don't photograph the interior of the buildings; don't eat, drink or smoke unless you're in designated areas. Recent travelers described ...

In Shinto, the water deity appears in various guises at shrines. In Buddhism, dragons ward off fires, bring the virtuous rain of Dharma, and often adorn the ceilings of lecture halls at Zen temples.

A time-honored New Year's ritual has returned to Wajima City on the Noto Peninsula, after an earthquake in central Japan forced the event to be canceled last year.

Mostly half-naked men with just white loincloth around their hips and several women in white robes joined the annual cold endurance ritual at the Kanda Myojin, a Shinto shrine in downtown Tokyo.