Mie Prefecture is best known internationally as the home of Ise Grand Shrine, the most sacred site in Shinto and a place of pilgrimage for Japanese people for over two millennia. Beyond Ise, Mie is celebrated for the Shima Peninsula’s pearl farms — the region where Mikimoto Kokichi pioneered cultured pearl production in the late 19th century — as well as the ama diving tradition, in which female breath-hold divers harvest seafood from the ocean floor, a practice now recognized by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage.
The Ago Bay area offers sheltered turquoise waters dotted with pearl cultivation rafts, while the southern Kumano Coast features dramatic rock formations, ancient pilgrimage routes and remote fishing villages. Inland, the Iga Basin is famous worldwide as the birthplace of Iga-ryu ninjutsu, one of the most celebrated schools of ninja arts.
The prefecture is also revered for its food. Matsusaka beef, produced in and around Matsusaka city, is regarded by many as the finest wagyu in Japan, rivaling and often surpassing Kobe beef in reputation among connoisseurs.
The most common gateway into Mie from Tokyo is via the Tokaido Shinkansen to Nagoya Station, followed by the Kintetsu Nagoya Line limited express toward Ise-Shi, Toba or Kashikojima, depending on your destination.
Journey times from Nagoya range from approximately 45 minutes to Tsu city to around 100 minutes to Toba.
