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Ise-Shima NP, Mie
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The café beside Yokoyama’s main deck serves a distinctly local treat: a donut made with Shima aosa sea lettuce, the same kind of seaweed cultivated in Ago Bay below. The view has a tasty connection to the menu.
Ago Bay’s maze of islands began as hills and ridges between river valleys. When sea levels rose about 10,000 years ago, the valleys flooded, leaving the intricate ria coastline visitors see from Yokoyama today.
A local legend says 3 troublesome rocks in the sea appeared in a fisherman’s wife’s dream as stones asking to be enshrined on Yokoyama. They were moved to the hillside, where people say they helped protect boats.
A memorial on Yokoyama’s ridge honors Kokichi Mikimoto. Shima City says Mikimoto and others chose an inlet in Ago Bay for pearl-cultivation trials because its calm, plankton-rich waters suited akoya oysters.
Japanese squirrels can be hard to spot in Yokoyama’s forest, but they leave a clue: pine-cone cores stripped of their seeds. Locals jokingly call these leftovers “fried shrimp” because of their shape.
The green hills around the view are a traditional satoyama, shaped by local livelihoods. Residents used dense ubame-gashi oak to make binchotan charcoal and other oak trees for firewood; the bay below supports pearl and seaweed farming.
The popular Yokoyama Sky View Café Terrace sits at 140 m, but Miharashi Observatory on the ridge is higher, at 180 m. It’s the one lookout where you can see both Ago Bay and inland mountains.
Each spring, park volunteers count red-frog egg masses in the ponds and wetlands of Yokoyama’s Sozo-no-Mori. The totals help estimate how many female frogs are breeding there—a small but ongoing wildlife survey.
In autumn, chestnut tiger butterflies pass through Yokoyama’s forest on their southward migration. The trail through the trees can act like a corridor for butterflies moving through the region.
Winter’s clear air can sharpen the distant ocean horizon—and on especially clear mornings, Mount Fuji may appear from Yokoyama. It’s a view that summer haze often hides.
In April and May, bright pink three-leaved azaleas bloom along the trail toward Ago Bay View Point. From the path, their flowers can frame the bay’s green islands—a seasonal foreground to the famous panorama.
The view is part of a living seascape: just outside Ago Bay’s mouth, ama divers harvest shellfish and seaweed from rocky seabeds. Local rules help prevent overharvesting and leave marine resources for future generations.
