Our first lecture in English, The Message of Peace in Shinto, was held on May 25th, 2007. Twenty five people attended this lecture and most of them were non-Japanese. It started with a very warm and friendly story from Rev. Otagaki’s life in NY. The main theme of her lecture came from the worldwide hit film "Spirited Away". The film, directed by Hayao Miyazaki, contains a message of peace from Shinto's point of view; one that I believe is most needed at this time in history. This movie also expresses a very interesting part of Japanese culture, the 8 million kami. The story goes that all facets of nature from rivers and rocks to the mountains are actually manifestations of kami, the Japanese representation of Gods. Because of this, the movie overflowed with Shinto spirituality, which is why I believe it was enjoyed so much. “Back in the day, we, human has communicated with kami more than now. But nowadays people tend to be forgetting existence of kami, to think about nature and also people have lost their survival abilities. I think this movie has taught us all those messages.” Rev. Otagaki said. She also exchanged views with participants about how Japanese take the kami and nature, how we should coexist with kami in the future and whether we need something to believe in. After the lecture, she exchanged cultural communication between Japan and the United States during a small complimentary reception. Rev. Otagaki said expressed her enthusiasm; "fortunately it became very a meaningful meeting though even it was our first time Lecture in English, which I also a little bit worried about. Hope this lecture/meeting will bring people to exchange views and to understand their culture or religion from now on".