At the end of February 2016, Iseshima was selected as the location for the May 2016 G7 Summit meeting.
While affectionately referred to as Oise-san, Ise Shrine is made up of 125 shrines, with Naikuu and Gekuu as the two main shrines. There is no way to visit all these shrines in only two days.
However, if you go to the information counter at Ise Shrine Station, they can tell you about a loop bus (CAN bus) where you can get on at off at different locations. There are 1-day and 2-passes available. These are great deals! Using these buses, I made my way around Naikuu and Gekuu.
Using the CAN bus, I headed to Futami. There are two things in Futami that are popular attractions with women. The first is Futami Okitama Shrine's Married Couple Rock and Mikimoto Pearl island. The guardian deity of Okitama Shrine is a frog. Why not buy a love charm at the shrine? Although the Futami Okitama Shrine is under construction, it is still open to the public.
A five-minute walk will take you to Mikimoto Pearl Island where Koukichi Mikimoto successfully cultivate pearls. The glittering precious pearls hold a special attraction for women all over the world.
The Can Bus ticket will also get you discounted entrance tickets to the island. There is plenty of things to do with a museum, an exhibition with works for sale and restaurants. The museum explains why pearls hold such an attraction and value to so many people. The pearls produced are so unbelievably shiny, it's no wonder women find them appealing.
There is also a performance where female divers, from a stand facing the ocean, dive to collect pearl oysters. In the cold weather, they dive once every hour. The sound of their gasps as they surface from a dive sounds like a flute, a haunting, sorrowful sound.
