Experience the best of Toba

Toba lies in Ise-Shima National Park on the Shima peninsula, a coast of inlets, pine-covered islets and oyster rafts. In the 1890s the entrepreneur Kokichi Mikimoto, a noodle seller's son from Toba, learned to grow cultured pearls here, and the pearl trade he founded turned the town into a pearl capital.

The ama, women who free-dive for abalone and shellfish, still work around these waters, and demonstrations are held on Pearl Island. Toba Aquarium is known for the unusually wide range of marine animals it keeps. Boats cross the bay to islands such as Kamishima, the setting of Yukio Mishima's novel The Sound of Waves, and the great shrines of Ise are a short journey inland.

Toba is known for seafood: Ise lobster, abalone and oysters, which ama divers grill over charcoal in small beach huts called amagoya, and the oyster season runs through the cold months. The coast is mild and green, with soft light on the bay in spring, and typhoons can bring rough water in late summer.