The Floating Otorii
Miyajima Island, Japan
Itsukushima (also called Miyajima) is an island in Hiroshima Bay in the Inland Sea and has been a holy place of Shintoism since the earliest times. The Itsukushima shrine was built here in 1168 toward the end of the Heian Era. Roughly 500 feet from the main sanctuary is the dramatic Otorii, which serves as a gate to the seaward entrance of the shrine. Due to its holy status, the island was once off limits to commoners; visitors seeking an audience with a priest were required to sail through the gate to the shrine, but were never allowed onto the island or into the shrine itself. The view of the gate in front of Mount Misen (the highest point on the island) is one of the Three Views of Japan, so called in 1643 by scholar/philosopher Hayashi Razan (he was pretty bad ass...his wiki doesn't tell the whole story.)
It came as a wonderful surprise when we learned that it is possible to walk to the gate from the island during low tide...
Visitors line up at the base of the gate for a chance to place offerings (usually coins) in the cracks of the legs and to pray or make a wish.
(^_^) "Chiizu, onegai shimasu!"