This is the shrine that houses the spirit of the island. Located in Sapporo, the largest city on Hokkaido, it receives a steady trickle of worshippers purchasing omamori (good luck charms), getting their car blessed, or even married, as pictured here.

The woman wearing white and red at the front of the procession is the temple "virgin."

Honestly though, when my parents lived in Sapporo for a year, the shrine was hard up for a real virgin—and so had to recruit one off the campus of a local Christian university.