Yokoyama Visitor Center Information

About the Yokoyama Visitor Center

The Yokoyama Visitor Center’s mission is to convey the appeal of Ise-Shima National Park and help visitors feel closer to the park’s natural environment. It offers exhibits, interactive experiences, and video presentations that highlight the park’s natural features and the history and culture of the surrounding region, including the jagged ria coast and the managed satoyama ecosystem. The Visitor Center also provides information on currently available activities and guidance on enjoying the park responsibly, including up-to-date weather and safety information.
The center has facilities for resting and rehydrating in comfort. In case of an accident or emergency, it is a safe shelter equipped with food, water, and other supplies. The center can also provide guidance on which areas within Yokoyama View Point are accessible to visitors with special mobility needs.
For park rangers, staff, and volunteers, the center is a base of operations for ecological studies, maintenance, invasive species eradication, and other work done to keep the park in healthy order.
If you are visiting Ise-Shima National Park, please drop by the Yokoyama Visitor Center and learn how to make the most of your visit.

Ise-Shima National Park preserves traditional satoyama and satoumi landscapes: forested and coastal areas where human activity has been interwoven with nature in a sustainable, productive way for centuries. Exhibits and videos in the Yokoyama Visitor Center offer an intuitive, immersive presentation of these connections.
A wall of permanent exhibit panels covers key topics about Ise-Shima National Park. One panel explains the park’s geography, from the Kyuikirin, the sacred forest surrounding Ise Jingu Shrine, to the intricate ria coastline and mosaic of islands. Another panel has information about the flora and fauna that thrive in the park. A third panel introduces recreational activities, including mountain trekking and opportunities to hear ama divers talk about their traditional lifestyles over grilled seafood. “Islands” in the center of the space offer exhibits on other topics as well.
The hall has a souvenir shop, a rest area, and a small reference library. Crafting and VR experiences are sometimes held, with details available at the information counter.

The theater room provides a more immersive introduction to Ise-Shima National Park’s natural environment. Video screens cover three of the room’s walls as well as the floor, recreating various locations in the park. Visitors can follow ama divers as they harvest abalone and sea cucumbers on rocky seaweed beds, watch Binchoutan charcoal makers harvest and burn ubame-gashi oak timber, and enjoy many other experiences.
By standing on icons on the floor or placing a hand over those on the walls, visitors can access explanations in their selected language about the animals and plants that live in the areas shown in the video that surrounds them. This lets visitors virtually step inside satoyama and satoumi ecologies and watch how people use and sustainably manage the resources of Ise-Shima National Park.