This is a small coastal city. It has become something of a tourist circus, and it is difficult to understand the attraction of Toba to Japanese. It is a maritime port - Toba was the last place of refuge from storms for junks or boats sailing to Edo (Tokyo) from Mikawa (Okazaki) or Ise Bay (Nagoya). Sake from places like Kunizakari, and pottery from Tokoname, was transshipped via Toba. Old merchant's houses and the graves of seamen are common. These days Toba is best known as the home of Mikimoto and the cultured pearls, and as the gateway to the Ise Grand Shrines and the vast Ise-shima National Park. There are car ferries from Cape Irago on the Atsumi Peninsula in Aichi Prefecture, and JR and Kintetsu railroads run services to Toba.