Post by @miotravelapp

japan has real life mermaids, they're in their 80s, and they'll cook you lunch 🧜‍♀️ One of the most extraordinary things you can do in Japan, and it's about ¥3,500. 📍 Osatsu Kamado ama hut, Osatsu, Toba, Mie Prefecture, Japan The ama are Japanese free-divers who have harvested abalone, shellfish and seaweed on breath-hold alone for around 2,000 years, in a trade that has been women's work for almost all of it. Osatsu, in Toba, is the largest surviving ama community in Japan with around 100 divers, and you can book into a working ama hut to eat with them. Here are 5 tips for the best time: 1. Most visitors to Toba see the ama at Mikimoto Pearl Island, which is a staged demonstration run about 8 times a day in roughly 3 metres of water. Osatsu is the real working community, so go there instead. 2. Book the hut ahead. Sessions run roughly 11:30am to 2pm, last about an hour, and cost around ¥3,500 per person. 3. You're not diving, you're eating. The divers grill their catch over the fire in front of you and talk you through the equipment and the customs. 4. You can try on the traditional white ama outfit, which is what they dived in for centuries before wetsuits. 5. Toba is reachable by train from Nagoya, Osaka and Kyoto, and works well combined with Ise Jingu shrine nearby. Send this video to the mio app and it'll save Osatsu Kamado straight onto your travel map. #AmaDivers #Japan #Toba #JapanTravel #hiddenjapan