The Religion: Shintoism

Maybe this is the Western person in me, but some of these Eastern religions are very confusing to me and in some ways I do not understand how some of these religions form. In the Shintoism religion they worship Amaterasu-Omikami whom is a woman. Now in my many religions the religion often worships a man as the sun goddess (example being the Egyptian religion where Ra is a man whom is the sun god.). I wondered why does Shintoism worship a woman as their supreme god when in most religions it is a man. I do like the fact that it is a woman but that is because I am a woman. :P. Just joking, everyone is equal. :).  When I was searching through Google, I found some sites that were useful to help answer the questions of my other members of my religion class. Here they are:

http://death.findyourfate.com/life-after-death/shinto.html   (this one talks about the Shintoism religions beliefs of the Afterlife)

http://www.patheos.com/Library/Shinto/Beliefs/Afterlife-and-Salvation.html   (Note: The patheos website is always helpful and has a ton of information! I recommend it highly!)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/shinto/places/shrines_1.shtml  (All about the Shrines!)