Valentine's Day in Toba

 This year Valentine's Day and the President's Day holiday fell on the same weekend so it was perfect timing for a fun trip.

There are a couple of famous National Parks in Mie and Wakayama prefectures that we really wanted to visit so we decided to make it a road trip (its not as convenient to get to these place by train and the drive time was only around 6 hrs from Camp Zama)

We arrived in Toba, a little town right at the mouth of Ise Bay (which leads to the major Port of Nagoya). Toba is famous for a few different things - it was here that Kokichi Mikimoto discovered how to produce cultured pearls. This area is also known for ama divers, the women (its only women) who free dive to collect sea life (oysters, abalone, octopus, etc...) from the ocean floor. We made a visit to Pearl Island and were able to see them dive and also walk through a very cool museum showing how cultured pearls are made.

While we waited for the ama divers we noticed some very dark patches in the ocean. As we looked closer we realized the dark area was actually FISH, lots and lots of fish. We asked our waitress at the cafe where we ate lunch what kind of fish they were and she told us they were Bora (aka Grey Mullet). We never got a clear understanding as to why there were thousands of them swimming together in a big black cloud in the ocean.

The process to create a cultured pearl is very labor intensive and takes years to complete. The oysters have to be gently opened up (pried open) and then inserted with a nucleus (round piece of shell) along with the "piece" (a small portion of the mantle of a donor oyster that stimulates the recipient oyster to coat the nucleus in nacre), Then they go back into the ocean (in nets or other containers) for a couple of years until they are opened up (killed...) and the pearl is removed. (they have to cared for during these years and often moved around depending on the water temperature)

We learned that about 50% of the oysters die before any pearls are formed or harvested. Then about 15% of the pearls harvested are not good enough to use. 30% are "marketable" but only 5% are truly "high quality". So, I guess that is why pearls are so dang expensive!

After our visit to Pearl Island, we next went to the Toba Aquarium. It was great! Japan really excels with aquariums. Toba Aquarium has many wonderful tanks and shows, but it's most popular animal, by far, is the sea otters! We never could get close enough to look at them. There was always a huge crowd gathered around their tank. I took a picture of the crowd! (Japanese LOVE a cute animal haha) Actually, to help let everyone see them, they have them live streaming on a large TV above their tank, so we kind of saw them. Super cute and very active.

To our amazement, at the end of the day just before closing we happened to be in the right place to see the trainers let the walrus out for a bit of fresh air. They are so dang huge!

We stayed at the Wisteria Inn in Toba and had a lovely view of the sea. And, from our room, we spotted another big black cloud of Bora.

This hotel had bento breakfast boxes which we picked up at the front desk and ate in our room. So much good food on this trip!

The next day we made a visit to the Sea Folk Museum. It had displays and movies all about the ama divers. As you might imagine, its a profession that seems to be dying out. Many of the remaining divers are getting older. We watched a film showing a husband and wife team (the wife dives holding a rope with a weight on the end, and the husband pulls her back up after about 50 seconds). She makes 60 to 70 dives a day! And I would say she was about 60 to 70 years old!

This museum also had all kinds of water craft and boats from Japan and other parts of Asia. It's incredible what people have used to go sailing out in the ocean. I would never get in most of the boats we saw!

After getting in the Sea Folk mood, we drove south to Shima and took a boat trip ourselves. It was a boat fashioned after one of the Spanish ships that first visited Japan back in the 1800s. Very nice to cruise out around some of the islands. And to see how much aquaculture is carried on in these waters.

We had an amazing sashimi lunch at a cute restaurant near the dock. Such a nice quiet little seaside town.

Our last stop was to visit the Ise-Shima National park and hike up to the observatory. The views from the top were spectacular. At one view point the sign said that on a clear day Mt Fuji could be seen from there. Unfortunately, it was not clear enough at the time were there. 

Our second night we stayed at the Miyako Resort Shima Bayside. It was a very nice hotel and we had such a peaceful view from our balcony. I took one pic at sunset and another the next morning just before sunrise as the boats were heading out to fish for the day.

We stayed in a regular room, but this resort has villas you can rent. They looked so nice! I wish we could come back with family and stay there again. But alas, probably never will be back.

Since it was Sunday we decided to attend the Ise Branch for sacrament meeting. (no pics) The Branch was quite small but so friendly and welcoming. I didn't understand anything during the meeting but still felt the spirit! We talked with the missionaries and several members after the meeting (mixture of English and Japanese).

After church we drove about 2 hours further south to Wakayama to visit Yoshino-Kumano National park, hike on the Kumano Kodo, and see Nachi Falls and the Kumano-Nachi Grand Shrine. The weather was a bit rainy but it actually added a misty atmosphere as we climbed up the mountain. In the reviews I read, one person said, "the stairs go on forever!" At first I was joking with dad about that, but as the climb went on and on, we both agreed, they DO go on forever! Finally we reached the top. This mountain has a Shinto shrine and a Buddhist  temple. Both religious traditions coexist together. 

The famous view of Nachi Falls is the one with the pagoda in the foreground. We were able to get "the shot". But due to the time of year, the waterfall was not as big as it is later in the Spring. Nachi Falls has the distinction of being the tallest waterfall in Japan!

That night we stayed at the Kamenoi Hotel in Nachikatsuura (view from our room's balcony). We enjoyed their really nice outdoor onsen before dinner (you could hear the ocean waves while you soaked in the baths) and then had an incredible Kaiseki feast that night. 

When Kaiseki starts out, it seems like the portions are so cute and tiny, bite sized. But then the food just keeps coming and you begin to realize you might not be able to keep up with it! This particular dinner had 9 courses (I retyped the menu):

Appetizer - Winter tastes along the Kumano roads

Sashimi Plate - Two types of fresh fish tuna landed at Katsuura Port and two of today's catch from Kishu

Simmered Dish - Kamenoi Nachi-Katsuura's specialty tuna cheek cutlet

Lidded Dish - Steamed pork cubes with odamaki

Meat Dish - Sukiyaki with Kumano beef loin and cotton candy

Soup - Red miso soup with Totsukawa nameko mushrooms

Tsukemono - Three types of pickles

Rice Dish - Koshihikari rice form Kumano cooked in a pot (at the table)

Dessert - Hojicha tiramisu in a traditional square wooded cup

See the white fluffy stuff in the small bowl? It really was cotton candy (spun sugar) and you added it to your Sukiyaki broth to bring it to your desired sweetness level. 

Breakfast the next morning - it was really good, but by this point we were about at our limit with fish

Before leaving Katsuura we took a walk along the shore. Lots of fishing boats and interesting rock formations.

On our drive home, we stopped by two places the members of the Ise Branch recommended to us. The first was Ise Shrine. That place was packed! I guess it is one of the most sacred and revered shrines in Japan. They don't allow photography of the actual shrine. We saw special dignitaries being taken by the priests to offer prayers in the inner area of the shrine. Later, we had to stand to the side while more dignitaries in fancy cars drove into the shrine compound. And this was all on a non-holiday Monday. Who knew?

This beautiful river runs around the shrine. 

The streets around the shrine have the old Edo period buildings. The look is very classic, except no dirt road and dad spotted a Starbucks sign haha

Our final stop was to see the Meoto Iwa or wedded rocks. The wind was blowing like crazy while we were there and it was freezing cold, but we saw them and took a pic! The torii on top of the rock is smaller than I thought it would be.