Ise city is reasonably easy to access from Tokyo, with Shikansen plus express train it can be reached in just over 3 hours. But as usual to save cost and maximise sight-seeing time given limited vacation days, we took an overnight bus, departing Tokyo at 22:30 and arriving just before 08:30.
Ise Shrine (伊勢神宮)
Arriving early is recommended, to avoid the crowds. The (main) place of interest in Ise is the Ise Shrine (伊勢神宮), which is considered the most important shrine in the Shinto religion, and is a hugely popular place to visit (regardless of the G7 stuff). Within that are two main shrines – the Outer Shrine (外宮) which is within walkable distance from Ise City station, and the Inner Shrine (内宮), which is a 20 minutes bus ride away. The Inner Shrine is notable as the place of worship for the “most important” diety, Amaterasu (天照大神), the god for the Japanese Imperial family.
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- Night bus arriving at Ise City train station (伊勢市駅).
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- G7 summit is a big deal here. A countdown board in the station to helpfully remind you of how many days until the big day.
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- Torii gate outside the Ise City train station.
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- Bridge to the Outer Shrine.
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- For cleaning hands and mouth before entering place of worship.
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- The main shrine in the Outer Shrine (yes, there are many within it) -Toyouke Shrine (豊受大神宮). Photo is not allowed past the Torii gate as it’s the sacred area.
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- Can’t see much… all boarded up.
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- Another sacred area. This is where the Toyouke Shrine was located previously (the shrine is relocated every 20 years)
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- There are various other minor shrines like this.
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- There are frequent buses between the Outer and Inner Shrine.
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- Ise-ebi (伊勢海老) (Japanese spiny lobster) is a local speciality. It’s expensive but for something cheaper there are lots of snacks with minimal amount of lobster (flavouring). Here we had a lobster croquette. We struggled to find trace of lobster in it.
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- Torii gate at the entrance of the Inner Shrine (内宮).
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- Crossing over the Uji Bridge (宇治橋) to reach the Inner Shrine .
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- Over the Isuzu River (五十鈴川) on top of Uji Bridge (宇治橋).
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- Japanese Sake (rice wine) is used as offering to the gods. So it’s common to see these walls of wine casks (酒樽) in shrines.
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- A path leads right next to the Isuzu River (五十鈴川), as a place for cleansing (御手洗場).
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- Kagura Hall (神楽殿)
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- The main shrine, Kodai Shrine (皇大神宮). Photos are prohibited past the Torii gate.
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- Aramatsuri Shrine (荒祭宮). The next largest after the main shrine. Seems pretty popular.
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- More wine.
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- Rest area. They serve free tea here.
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- Colourful manhole cover.
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- After the shrine visit, it’s time to find some lunch. The lively Orahrai-machi Street (おはらい町通り) is right next to the shrine entrance, and is lined with restaurants and souvenir shops.
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- Ise-udon noodles is another local speciality. We prefer the more chewy “normal” udon, nevertheless.
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- Ise-shima area is also famous for pearl cultivation. So I tried out this “pearl oyster rice”. Turned out just like dried scallop.
Meoto-iwa Rocks (夫婦岩)
Meoto-iwa Rocks (literally, Husband and Wife Rocks) is about half an hour bus ride from the Inner Shrine. It’s a bit underwhelming, though it may be worth a visit for couples, just for good fortune. The view is supposed to be great during sun rise, and at certain times of year it’s possible to see the sun rising between the two rocks.
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- On the right, Futamiokitama Shrine (二見興玉神社).
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- Meoto rocks through the Torii gate.
Toba Aquarium (鳥羽水族館)
Despite Toba being a small town, it has a heavy-weight aquarium boasting the largest number of species of sea creatures in Japan (as well as owning the domain aquarium.co.jp!). As an aquarium buff having been to a fair number of aquariums around the world I was definitely excited, and it didn’t disappoint – there really was a lot of variety, many species I had never seen before, and the display designs were also great. My only complaint would be that some visitor areas were bit cramped, and closing at 5pm was way too early! There wasn’t enough time to take in everything.
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- Toba Aquarium entrance.
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- Mikimoto Pearl Island (ミキモト真珠島) is another tourist attraction near the aquarium. It’s related to pearl cultivation in this region but we didn’t have time for it.
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- Anemone stuck on the aquarium glass?
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- Finless porpoise. Not exactly dolphins!
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- Playing with a ball.
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- Pirarucu and, what I think are White Cloud Minnows. I love this kind of contrast.
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- A captivating freshwater display.
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- Little neon lights – Cardinal Tetras
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- Manatee
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- Some strange creature with flashing blue line on its body.
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- Colourful boxer shrimp. I had only seen it in documentary before.
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- This transparent spider-like creature is the larvae of the Japanese spiny lobster.
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- Penguin seeking enlightenment facing the wall.
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- Dugong. Mascot of the Toba Aquarium.
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- Natural-looking display.
Ise-ebi (伊勢海老) dinner
Places close early in a small town like Toba. We went to the Toba train station (walkable from the aquarium, or save the effort if you have a bus pass) to find some early dinner. It wasn’t even 5:30 pm yet and it’s already pretty quiet.
Near the station was a little street lined with local restaurants, some of which didn’t even open for dinner (lunch only). All of them are the similar type serving grilled seafood. As we’re in Ise, we decided to give the famous Ise-ebi (Japanese spiny lobster) a try, despite the high price tag. Scanning the menus outside, we went in to the one that seemed the “cheapest” at “2500~”. Note the tilde!
It turned out the price displayed was only a minimum! The owner (presumably) grabbed one of the lobsters from the tank, weighed it, then quoted a price of something like double the amount. While we looked hesitant, she took another smaller one which cost north of 3000 yen. If any smaller I don’t think we’d have much to eat, so we agreed. And there the little lobster got cut in half and put onto the grill.
The lobster tasted great, but just too small for the price. To be fair, I think all the restaurants charge about the same for these (lobster courses are commonly over ten thousand yen), but it would’ve been better if the pricing was more transparent, say showing how much it was per gram. We still didn’t know in the end.
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- The restaurant street. Yes, that’s all it is.
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- Lobster grilled alive (残酷焼).
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- Delicious, but way too small! We had to order some rice balls to fill up. These places don’t serve much else apart from seafood.
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- Oysters were also good.
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- Outside the resturant.
We picked up our rental car at the Toyota shop near the Toba station. We’d be staying at a pension on the hillside tonight which is only accessible by car. The car would be our means of transport for the next two days, as we’d be moving further down the Kii Peninsula (紀伊半島) where public transport is not very convenient.
I should mention however that there is a useful loop bus that stops at all the main places of interest in the Ise and Toba area, i.e. the places we had been to today. A day pass is available for 1000 yen and it includes a discount voucher for the aquarium too.