Today we’re escaping the Osaka crowds by taking a scenic train ride out to a place where you can see Japanese female pearl divers—Mikimoto Pearl Island. It makes for a great day trip from Osaka, and this post will give you a one-day Japan travel itinerary you can follow.
🤍 Don’t forget to subscribe to my channel ✨
What makes Mikimoto Pearl Island so special?
After spending time in both Tokyo and Osaka, I wanted to take my parents out to a less crowded area of Japan and somewhere that all of us, myself included, had never been before.
Mikimoto Pearl Island is the birthplace of modern pearl cultivation and the Japanese pearl industry. The area came onto my radar when I saw a video about female divers in Japan and how the island is one of the only places where they demonstrate these traditional diving practices for visitors.
How to get to Mikimoto Pearl Island
To get to the island, you get to ride the Kintetsu Limited Express line from Osaka to Toba station.
For our journey, we’ll be catching the Limited Express from Tsuruhashi station—which is one of the stops on the main Osaka loop line that links the central Osaka stations.
The ride from Tsuruhashi station to Toba station takes about an hour and a half. Making it long enough to be able to relax a bit and take in the beautiful aesthetic countryside.
Once you arrive at Toba Station, it’s a short walk from the station to the island.
How to purchase Kintetsu Limited Express tickets
You can purchase tickets either in person at the station or online. We opted to purchase our tickets and choose our seats online the night before. I’ll leave a link to the website where you can purchase tickets in the video description box.
Once online, you enter in the time, date, and location for where you want to go.
🤍 Purchase Kintetsu Limited Express train tickets
Mikimoto Pearl Island
Toba is a coastal city located in central Japan that has many local attractions like the Toba Aquarium and is known for its seafood. Mikimoto Pearl Island is located in Toba Bay. You can reach the island and museum by walking from Toba station.
🤍 Mikimioto Pearl Island Museum website
How much are tickets, and how do you get them
Tickets for the museum can be purchased online in advance. Or, you can purchase them at the ticket office, which is what we did.
Adult entry is 1650 yen and children six to fifteen years is 820 yen.
What you will see and learn at the Mikimoto Pearl Island Museum
The museum provides information and history about pearls, pearl cultivation, and Mikimoto Kokichi himself.
Mikimoto built the Japanese pearl industry and was the first to succeed in pearl cultivation in 1893.
The main building has sections about pearl farming and about the modern uses of pearls for jewelry and cosmetics.
Then there’s a whole other building focused solely on Mikimoto Kokichi’s journey as a successful businessman in Japan.
Thankfully, the museum’s information is in English and Japanese!
There is a restaurant on site where you can lunch while looking out at the beautiful Toba Bay.
You can also purchase Mikimoto and Mikimoto Pearl Island pearls from the store located in the main building.
How long does it take to visit Mikimoto pearl island?
Overall, it took a little over four hours for us to go through the museum, eat, and watch the ama pearl diver demonstration.
Who are the “ama” female Japanese divers?
The biggest reason for us visiting the island was to see the Ama divers in action.
“Ama” are Japanese female divers; also known as sea women.
The ama traditionally not only pearl dived but also dove for farming and aquatic foods such as sea urchin and abalone. There are still some local markets in Mie prefecture where you can purchase items harvested by ama.
Mikimoto hired the Ama for their diving skills to help cultivate the Akoya oysters for their pearls.
However, due to the development of aquaculture technology, the need for the Ama pearl divers disappeared.
To commemorate their efforts, the museum offers hourly performances where you can see the Ama dive for oysters in their traditional white attire, which, by the way, does NOT include modern scuba gear.
It was amazing to see it in person.
Like this post? Save it for later on Pinterest!
LINKS
- 🤍 Purchase Kintetsu Limited Express train tickets
- 🤍 Mikimioto Pearl Island Museum website
- 📗 Japan Train (Eki) Stamp Book
- ✅ Get a FREE “Japan Travel Checklist”
- 👩🏻💻 “What you need to book BEFORE traveling to Japan”
Leave a Reply