Ago Bay

Ago Bay is the scenic heart of the Shima peninsula and the defining landscape of Ise-Shima National Park — a vast, sheltered ria bay whose deeply indented shoreline encloses dozens of small green islands and countless quiet inlets. Formed where an ancient river valley was drowned by the rising sea, its intricate, fractal coastline has long been celebrated as one of Japan's most beautiful stretches of water, and it was this scenery, combined with the region's spiritual heritage, that helped make Ise-Shima a national park. In 2016 the bay drew the eyes of the world when the nearby island of Kashikojima hosted the G7 Ise-Shima Summit.

The bay's calm, nutrient-rich waters are ideal for cultivating pearls, and Ago Bay is the historic centre of Japan's cultured-pearl industry, the descendant of Mikimoto Kokichi's pioneering work just up the coast at Toba. Everywhere across the water float the dark wooden rafts from which strings of Akoya oysters are suspended, slowly coating implanted nuclei in layer upon layer of nacre. These pearl rafts, scattered among the islands, are as much a part of the bay's character as the pines and the tides, and they give the seascape its distinctive working beauty.

The best way to appreciate Ago Bay is from the water. Sightseeing cruises, including the popular Spanish-galleon-styled Esperanza pleasure boat, depart from Kashikojima at the tip of the peninsula, weaving among the islands and pearl rafts and offering a perspective impossible from land. From the deck you understand the true scale and complexity of the bay, its channels opening one into another, its wooded islets rising from mirror-calm water. Timed for late afternoon, a cruise becomes magical as the low sun sets the water alight and the silhouettes of the islands darken against a burning sky — Ago Bay sunsets are rightly famous.

Around the shore, the town of Kashikojima offers waterfront hotels, seafood restaurants and quays, while viewpoints such as the Yokoyama Observatory on the northern rim provide a sweeping panorama of the whole bay from above, the classic postcard image of Ise-Shima. The waters are also renowned for their seafood — spiny lobster, oysters and abalone gathered by the region's ama divers appear on local menus straight from the bay.

Beyond the sightseeing, Ago Bay rewards slow travel: kayaking through its sheltered channels, staying at a bayside inn, or simply watching the light change over the pearl rafts from a quiet cove. Its combination of natural beauty, working maritime culture and culinary richness makes it the essential landscape of any visit to the Shima peninsula.

Access is straightforward: Kashikojima is the terminus of the Kintetsu Shima Line, with limited express trains running directly from Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya and central Ise, and the cruise quays sit right by the station. Whether experienced from a boat, a viewpoint or the waterside, Ago Bay is the reason many travellers venture to the very end of the peninsula, and it seldom disappoints.