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Floating otorii, Miyajima, Japan

I decided to start posting a series of out-takes from my series of photos of Japan. Over the next few days I'll be posting photos I took in Japan.

While I was visiting my cousins in Hiroshima, they took me to Miyajima. We took the ferry across the straight to the island. The tide was low, and the famous floating O-Torii was grounded. We walked along the shore towards the torii as deer sniffed at the tourists, hoping for handouts.

We descended from the path down to the sandy beach and followed the people up to the gate. Barnacles were encrusted up to the water mark. People had wedged coins in among the crustaceans. A small spit of sand edged out into the sea, and people walked along its narrow width to take photos of the torii, with the Itsukushima-jinja shrine marking the background.

The tide was coming in, but I didn't notice until almost too late. My second cousin called out to me and I could see them close to the torii. The narrow spit that connected the small island I stood upon was becoming overrun. I remembered stories from Brittany of the tide running in like horses stranding people on other islands off the coast and I quickly made my way back to shore.