Well, we left our hotel in Nagoya to go to Toba, which is a little bit to the south of Nagoya. There we got off the train and took a tour of the Mikimoto Pearl factory, which was a cultural experience... ![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4IMDtJwPDJjoP8xAIFVrbWDTumNx02fKABx9hTpcL-qV6d9c9usS-qbS1y4XS-Rv0T2JCthuyLhRgFgOsm4y3oeSgHqrD51CpLtOoCwmoQwHolzjd8FaV8oqf4VGWBuZ1wkEc1Q/s200/00990022.JPG)
We saw the Ama, who are female divers that do the breath diving for oysters. They wear all white dresses and this large single piece face plate/mask, and have a bucket with a rope. Interestingly enough, while the japanese here say that the white is to repel sharks, I distinctly remember a man in Belieze saying that you were supposed to wear anything but white because that:s the color that the fish flash that gets the sharks excited... but no attacks on the young ladies who were demonstrating for us. We then went through the museum and learned the process of making pearls, which is basically cutting out the (nearl?) organs and planting that and a shell piece from a mississippi freshwater clam into the gonads of a mother oyster, which causes the pearl to replicate the coating across the shell piece and produces a pearl. We bought some items and headed on our way to the hotel. Dinner was uneventful, other than a clear demonstration that I'm much more adjusted to japanese food than the rest of my family is (mmm, hand me that shashima... yes mom, it does look like they just caught it), and then off to bed.
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