I went to a ton of shrines, like all tourists do. But one experience in particular stood out. One day I decided to just explore the neighbourhood I was in, and I ended up finding a relatively important shrine in the middle of the urban landscape. This was not a place for tourists at all. There were no English signs at all.
I got there just before opening time, and I found the priest and a miko performing a prayer service.
Now, I'm the spiritual type and prone to psychic sensitivity from birth, so bear with me because this might sound like absolute nonsense to you, but that place was intense as fuck. Unlike most shrines I visited, and unlike most religious establishments in my country, whatever was there was fucking real.
Someone had asked me to buy a talisman for them, so I decided to buy it there. While I was waiting, a couple of locals came to pray before going to work. I was somewhat familiar with the procedures, but I observed them and waited for them to leave before going through it myself. The purification, donation box, prayer... I followed the ritual the best I could once I was alone at the shrine, and I could feel there's something real there. Again, I apologize because you might roll your eyes reading this, but I'm initiated in a different esoteric practice totally unrelated to Shinto, and I could feel the telltale signs of real spiritual power. Those of you from Asian backgrounds might find this obvious (or not), but I realized Eastern religions still tap into something very much real and available to everyday folk, and that was a nice surprise.

I spent maybe an hour walking around the deserted shrine and taking in the early morning atmosphere. Once the service was over, the priest came back to the talisman shop and I made my best to purchase mine in Japanese. I'd like to think the priest mistook my fear of looking like a tourist and fumbling my Japanese with earnest desperation for a talisman that worked (it is, after all, a health talisman for someone with cancer). If nothing else, I could sense actual compassion in his gaze when he reached for an English handout explaining the talismans and I asked for an illness recovery one clumsily without looking at it. If nothing else, I can say I had as close to a spiritual experience as I could have there.