Eats In Toba, Japan

Apart from running in Nagoya Women Marathon in March, 2019 (race recap here); another highlight of our trip that we made last month was visiting Ise and Toba. 

Both are located in Mie Prefecture - Ise is famously known for Ise Jingu which is Japan's most sacred Shinto shrines and Toba is know for its pearls and ama divers.

While on our way to Toba, we stopped by Ise City and visited Toyoke Dai-Jingu (or Geku Outer Shrine).

After walking around the outer shrine area, it was nice to stop for some refreshments. 

We ordered akafuku zenzai, which is a sweet red bean soup with toasted mochi.

Hot, sticky mochi in a warm red bean soup.

Perfect after walking around in the cold spring morning that day.

We arrived in Toba around noon and a perfect time to have some lunch before checking-in at a Japanese Inn nearby.

The Japanese Inn provides free shuttle from the train station so it was very convenient.

Lunch was at a restaurant next to the train station and of course, we must have seafood!

We ordered two plates of this mixed grilled seafood platter.

Yummy!

A visit to this area is not complete if one doesn't try the Ise Ebi or Japanese spiny lobster and we had this the next day.

It was first served as sashimi. Later, the shop owner grilled the Ise ebi head together with other parts that we didn't eat and we had a really nice grilled lobster.

It was awesomely sweet and delicious either raw or grilled. 

The Ise Ebi was a splurge for us (we paid 4,000 yen) for it but it was well worth the splurge.

We also ordered some grilled oysters.

Really, really delicious.

With the friendly owner.

And here's a video of us choosing a lobster that fits our budget. ^^