Touring the Islands of Toba

After getting some rest and filing up our bellies, it was now nighttime and time to relax in the onsen.
The Toba Grand Hotel fills its onsen with waters from Sakakibara Onsen in Tsu, which is considered one of the best onsen waters in Japan. After stuffing myself in luxury during dinnertime, I got to bathe and relax in luxury waters.

My favorite part of any onsen is the Rotenburo, the outdoor bath, where you can enjoy the summer breeze while relaxing in the onsen. I heard that the Rotenburo of the female bath is quite interesting and I was actually asked to take some photos of it for promotion when the onsen closes.

Later that night, I prepared my equipment and headed over to the female bath and the rotenburo was incredible.

The bath was in this small tunnel of a room with one end opening up to the outside with a view of the oyster farms shone by a light that gradually changed its color. The stones around the bath had small galaxy pattern lights which definitely made this a beautiful outdoor bath.

After the onsen, I had a good night's sleep.

I woke up early the next day for the breakfast buffet and just like last night, the buffet didn’t disappoint.

I was in the same dining area as last night, which has all glass windows, but during dinnertime, it was already dark outside. In the morning, there was a wide open view of the bay with the perfect weather for kayaking.

It was as if last night's thunderstorm was never here.

Once again, I smashed the buffet and now it was time to go kayaking.

We drove over to a small beach right on the backside of the hotel to meet up with the kayak guide of the Kaito Yumin Club. We met up at their small kayak shack where we left our stuff and changed into some kayak ready gear.

There was one instructor and about 7 other people participating in the kayak activity with us.

Our instructor then started the explanation and had us all introduce ourselves to get to know who we’ll be kayaking with today. The instructor was really great at creating a fun mood and you could tell everybody was already having a great time.

Yesterday we took a ferry to an inhabited island so today, we’ll be kayaking to a remote one. On the menu today is the middle island of the Mitsushima islands, where a surprise awaits us. We jumped on the kayaks and started making our way.

Toba is located right at the mouth of the Ise bay so there’s mixed waters from both the bay and the Pacific Ocean, which results in calm waters and a blooming marine life. However, this doesn’t mean our ride will be a walk in the park.

In order to get to the Mitsushima Islands, we had to cross through the open waters in between, where all the ferries pass by. The instructor had us wait for the right timing and warned us not to get too far from each other. In reality it was actually quite safe and just added a bit of thrill to the experience.

We kayaked through the open waters and finally arrived at the other side of the islands. As we turned the corner, in front of the middle island was a tall Kannon Statue, facing out into the sea.

Since the statue was on the other side of the island, it’s not visible from any part of Toba and the only way to get a glimpse of it was either through a ferry or by kayaking like us. We parked our kayaks on the pebbly shores and landed on the island.

The tide was low so we had plenty of space to walk around and even get close to the Kannon statue. The island had some interesting rock formations and a very blooming marine life as well. After a good 10 minutes on the island, it was time to get back on our kayak and make our way back to Toba.

Despite the sudden thunderstorm, we were able to do everything we planned to do in Toba: kayak to a remote island, learn about the lifestyle of Toshijima, and enjoy a nice hotel on the coast of Toba. I definitely enjoyed my time in Toba and I hope you will too if you get the chance to visit!

Next on our itinerary is to travel to the southeastern corner of Toba to Osatsucho, the home of the Ama Divers, so I hope you give that article a read!

〇Toba Marche

 https://tobamarche.jp/

〇Toshi Island Cruise

 https://www.city.toba.mie.jp/teikisen-kanri/unkou.html

〇Remote Island Kayak Tour

 https://oz-group.jp/

〇Toba Grand Hotel

 https://jgh.jp/