The Red Torii of Itsukushima Shrine in front of Miyajima Island in Hiroshima Prefecture is world famous. You can walk out to it at low tide, and ships pass through the torii at high tide to reach the Shinto monastery of Itsukushima Shrine. You will be greeted on land by deer and stags, who will even steal your ice cream or even money from your wallet. The shrine has been around for around 1500 years and Miyajima is therefore still considered a holy island to this day. It is also a good example of syncretism, i.e. the synthesis of religions, for example, because there are also Buddhist temples in the Shinto complex.
We had used our stay in Hiroshima to visit the island and the torii by boat and especially wanted to do long exposures to depict the red torii over velvety seas. That worked wonderfully. The subsequent walk through the monastery's long colonnades had something mystical about it, and from the shrine one can hike various routes to the 520 meter high Mt. Misen, from which one has a wonderful view of the surrounding islands.
