Toba, Japan

We woke to a cold clear morning about 40 degrees. Our first stop was the Mikomoto pearl island. In 1893, Mikimoto Kokichi came up with the idea of introducing foreign material into an oyster, so that it would produce calcium secretions and produce a cultured pearl. His goal was to decorate the necks of women worldwide. Naturally occurring Pearls are much rarer, one in 10,000 oysters may have a natural pearl, and of course, most won’t make good jewelry.  The museum explained the entire process from introducing the nucleus to all the sorting required to produce a matching pearl necklace. About half of the Pearl’s are rejected for shape or color reasons. The color of the pearl is largely dependent upon the species of oyster used. The most interesting part was observing the women pearl divers. Women are used because they can hold their breath longer and have an extra layer of fat to stay warmer. Oysters are harvested from November to January.

We then took the bus up Skyline drive, quickly gaining altitude above the bay. From the top, we could see our ship the Diamond Princess as well as many islands.  In another direction you could barely see the snows of Mount Fuji. As we were going down, we passed many empty buses headed up the drive.

View of the harbor from Skyline Drive

Ise Shrine has both and outer and inner garden. Geku is the outer shrine. We learned the cleansing ritual of washing the left hand, the right hand, then pouring water in your left hand and bringing it to your lips, finally pour water from the ladle along the handle. Shinto temples are made from natural, unpainted wood. Every 20 years a new hall is built next to the old one, the Kami gods are moved, and the old hall removed. As we pass under each Torii, we bow. Upon reaching the main hall, as commoners we can only enter the outer of four chambers, those who pay may go to the second chamber, the emperor and high officials, the third. One prays by throwing a coin in the receptacle, bowing twice, clapping twice, bowing once and making your prayer.

Background is current hall, foreground future site

Naiju is the inner garden. This place is huge, it is a kilometer walk from the first torii to the main hall. This is the largest Shinto shrine in Japan . This is where the G7 met when last in Japan. While we were visiting the gardens our bus had to move because bus parking is so scarce. The bus drove up skyline drive to the top where the driver had a smoke, then drove back to pick us up, explaining all the empty buses on the drive.

Walking the kilometer of forest

This one of the few tours, we've been on where we had too much time at the sights. We easily finished both sights about ½ hour before the bus arrived.