Toriike

Toriike formed when the roof of a limestone cave collapsed and left two round sinkholes. The seaward pond, Ichi no Ike, is 75 m across and 45 m deep; the inland one is 55 m across and 25 m deep. A rock bridge appears to divide them. The two join underwater, and the sea pond opens to the ocean through a cave, so the water rises and falls with the tide. Both were designated a national Place of Scenic Beauty and Natural Monument on 28 July 2006.

Two legends hang over the place. One, recorded in 1748, tells of a fisherman who roasted a talking fish that called for help, after which a great wave destroyed the village, and some read it as a memory of the 1771 Meiwa tsunami. The other is a stepmother story with a rock called Mamakodai by the sea pond. Divers enter from the sea and surface in the pond; the dive itself is covered separately.

A trail once continued to the smaller Nabezoko pond, and typhoon damage closed the path beyond Toriike in 2016. Divers at Marea Miyakojima note that in winter algae turn the fresh upper layer a deep green.