The Tori gate is the entrance way shown
in the middle of the picture below. The gate stands directly in the
water and looks rather mystical.
When
low-tide occurs the ground that gate rests can be seen, along with all
the little crabs running about. The gate resides on a holy island
where the Japanese take great care as not to let any creature die,
to maintain this pristine island. The sick and elderly are shipped
off the island when their death is imminent. I'm not sure that this
practice still holds in modern day Japan, but at least it was in feudal
Japan. This lack of death on the island has allowed the local fauna
to become very friendly. Deer just sleep in the streets because they
have never been hunted, and the many tourists come and feed them.
This one deer was to impatient and ate the map that the tourist next to
me was reading. They are bold, because we were sitting in a building
waiting for out boat with 100 other people and the deer just came right
in.