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what's different in Japan?”
    “Japan, like most Eastern countries, has never taken well to America's monotheistic and, quite frankly, authoritarian outlook. In Japan, we practice Shinto or Buddhism-- or both,” Keda said, leaning forward some now.
    “Can I get anything for you two?” a female voice cut in.
    “Just some coffee, please,” Tom said as a smiling flight attendant trundled up to him with a cart.
    “Oh, nonsense. Eat something,” Keda insisted.
    “Not hungry...”
    “You must. Coffee and breakfast for both of us,” Keda said to the stewardess.
    “Breakfast is scrambled eggs and sausages.” Two foil-covered trays of viscous looking eggs appeared before the pair. Tom gulped and frowned, while Keda smiled and bowed his head.
    “Thank you, miss.”
    “Eat something,” the stewardess said to Tom as she pushed her cart past, smiling warmly. Tom grinned back. She was cute enough.
    “So get me up to speed on that,” Tom continued.
    “I assume you're not terribly familiar with Shinto,” Keda said as he peeled the foil off of his breakfast. He dug into it happily.
    “I get the gist of Buddhism, Shinto's new to me.”
    “I won't bore you with our long-winded creation myths, or anything of the sort. Suffice to say, Shinto is not a religion so much as a collective of rituals and folklore. It rests on the belief that spirits and gods, or kami, live everywhere. Kami rule over the forests, the seas... the stones, the grass, and the wind. Money. Sex.”
    “Everything,” Tom affirmed, resting his elbow on his tray. Despite himself, he was enjoying this conversation.
    “Correct. But go back to Christianity, and the world is very binary. There is life and there is the afterlife-- you are either from one or the other. The two do not mix, and should they mix, it is very bad for all involved.”
    Tom sipped his bitter coffee, glancing out the window again. They would be landing in another hour.
    “In Shinto however,” Keda continued, “We recognize that spirits and people are not separate. We share the same world, this world, and all its interrelated complexity.”
    “I think I'm starting to see what you're getting at. So you're saying all Japanese people believe in ghosts, by default?”
    Keda gave a genuine laugh. “Not quite to that extreme. Today's man is rational no matter what part of the developed world he's from. Ghosts and demons-- bread and butter for you and me, mind you-- are the stuff of fairy tales. But a child in America might be deathly afraid of the Boogeyman, or the Devil, and their entire worldview could hinge on whether or not these things are 'real'-- or at least real enough to get them. And that concept, that perception of spirituality, and of fear, sticks with you well into adulthood.”
    “Whereas in Japan it's... like they just sort of know these things are around? And there's nothing they can do about it?”
    “On some fundamental level, yes, exactly. I think you're getting, as you might put it, the gist of it. People debate often about where these aberrations come from exactly. But whereas in America you treat them as foreign invaders, whose existence you tolerate and then excise when they become inconvenient, in Japan we... redirect them, gently, to where they're supposed to be, because they belong in this world as much as we do. Just, perhaps, not in the same parts of it.”
    “What, so you cater to them?” Tom screwed up his mouth, looking perturbed.
    “I wouldn't put it that way. We respect them, insofar as they respect us. Once that respect has been breached, we are quite prepared to fight back as brutally as any American. But we've gotten sorely off-topic,” Keda said with a smile, finishing his eggs and moving onto his sausages.
    “Yeah,” Tom said, slurping his coffee. “What were we talking about again?”
    “When we land, you'll have several hours to rest from the flight. The exorcism will take place in the evening, after I've had time to meditate and prepare