The deity appears from the forest covered in mud — thick, ancient mud drawn from a sacred well. Paantu moves through the village with purpose, approaching everyone it encounters: children, old people, mothers carrying infants, visitors who arrived that morning with no knowledge of what they were walking into. Being smeared with the mud is the blessing. Running away is permitted and mostly unsuccessful. The exact date of the Paantu is not announced in advance — a deliberate policy that reflects the ceremony's character. It happens when the community decides the time has come, in late autumn by the lunar calendar. Tourists who build an itinerary around it are likely to be disappointed. Tourists who happen to be on Miyakojima during the right week may find themselves covered in sacred mud from a ritual that was old before anyone thought to register it as heritage. Which is, depending on their disposition, either the best or most startling thing that has ever happened to them.