name of a residing at the shrine nor how many are believed to dwell there. Unlike in certain other religions, Shinto shrines do not have weekly services that practitioners are expected to attend. Some Shinto practitioners do not offer their prayers to the directly, but rather request that a priest offer them on their behalf; these prayers are known as kitō. Many individuals approach the asking for pragmatic requests. Requests for rain, known as ("rain-soliciting") have been found across Japan, with Inari a popular choice for such requests. Other prayers reflect more contemporary concerns. For instance, people may ask that the priest approaches the so as to purify their car in the hope that this will prevent it from being involved in an accident; the kotsu anzen harai ("purification for road safety"). Similarly, transport companies often request purification rites for new buses or airplanes which are about to go into service. Before a building is constructed, it is common for either private individuals or the construction company to employ a Shinto priest to come to the land being developed and perform the , or earth sanctification ritual. This purifies the site and asks the to bless it. People often ask the to help offset inauspicious events that may affect them. For instance, in Japanese culture, the age 33 is seen as being unlucky for women and the age 42 for men, and thus people can ask the to offset any ill-fortune associated with being this age. Certain directions can also be seen as being inauspicious for certain people at certain times and thus people can approach the asking them to offset this problem if they have to travel in one of these unlucky directions. Pilgrimage has long been important in Japanese religion, with pilgrimages to Shinto shrines called . A round of pilgrimages, whereby individuals visit a series of shrines and other sacred sites that are part of an established circuit, is known as a . An individual leading these pilgrims, is sometimes termed a . For many centuries, people have also visited the shrines for primarily cultural and recreational reasons, as opposed to spiritual ones. Many of the shrines are recognised as sites of historical importance and some are classified as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Shrines such as Shimogamo Jinja and Fushimi Inari Taisha in Kyoto, Meiji Jingū in Tokyo, and Atsuta Jingū in Nagoya are among Japan's most