Toba Hotel International: Get Your Fill of Gourmet Food and the Fantastic Scenery

Since ancient times, the Ise-Shima region of Mie Prefecture has provided foodstuffs to the imperial palace in Kyoto and Ise Jingu. Known as mitsukekuni, the offerings were noteworthy for their wide selection of high-quality seafood. Ever since it opened in 1964, the Toba Hotel International, which sits atop a high outcropping with a majestic view over all of Toba Bay — with its ‘treasure box’ full of food ingredients — has welcomed the Japanese imperial family and numerous celebrities from abroad, as well as winning the admiration of many gourmets from around the world.

Symbolic of the wonderful food at the Toba Hotel International — nicknamed the ‘gourmet hotel of Ise-Shima’ — is the Japanese restaurant Mondo Misaki, which reopened in March 2017 after extensive remodelling. The dishes offered here consist of fresh seafood caught and offloaded that very morning, and then prepared in the open kitchen. The ingredients are so carefully chosen that the chefs themselves travel by boat to markets in nearby islands to procure them. We wholeheartedly hope you will try the chef’s recommended fresh fish of the day, allowing guests to enjoy seasonal seafood, including abalone in the summer, Ise-ebi Japanese spiny lobster in the fall, and Anori-fugu tiger puffer in the winter. For the main dish, it is wise just to leave it up to the chef and order Mondo Misaki’s recommended menu. The premium ingredients freshly caught that day, such as abalone or lobster — and in which Ise-Shima takes pride — are cooked right before the guests on a piping hot stone plate, with the chefs concluding their performance by pouring special seafood sauce onto the freshly-cooked food. Viewing the splendid scenery of Toba Bay while partaking in the meals here transports guests to a state of bliss, almost as if they were taking a bite out of the glorious nature spreading out before their very eyes.

After partaking in your fill of the bountiful nature of Ise-Shima, we recommend that you go back to your room and relax in the luxurious trappings there. The Imperial Suites, selected by honoured guests from around the world, are particularly special. From those rooms, located on the penthouse floor of the Ocean Wing, guests can enjoy the majestic scenery of the calm sea dotted with a multitude of islands. The same islands provided the setting for the novel Shiosai written by Yukio Mishima, one of Japan’s leading novelists in the last century. One can easily understand why the exquisite scenery of Ise-Shima, stretching out before one’s eyes, also captivated men of letters with their unparalleled aesthetic sensibility.

The chance to devour Ise-Shima’s gourmet food and fantastic scenery to your heart’s content is the luxurious experience awaiting you at the Toba Hotel International.