Temizu — or chōzu — is the first thing that happens and it is done in a fixed order, which the Association of Shinto Shrines sets out explicitly: take the ladle in the right hand and pour over the left; move it to the left hand and pour over the right; return it to the right, pour into the cupped left palm and rinse the mouth from the hand, never putting the ladle to the lips; rinse the left hand again; then stand the ladle vertical so the remaining water runs down the handle and cleans it for the next person. All of it is one ladleful. The point is not hygiene — you have arrived carrying kegare picked up simply by living, and you take it off before approaching. The other instruction given at the gate is to bow at the torii and to walk to one side of the approach, because the centre of the path is the kami's. Many shrines covered their basins during the pandemic and a number have not reopened them, replacing the water with flowers, which practitioners have opinions about.