Akoya Pearls Finally Reopens in Japan Pavilion at EPCOT

If you’re wanting for a truly amazing and exceptional expertise to have in the course of your EPCOT working day, a pay a visit to to Akoya Pearls may be just the point. The tiny store is positioned inside of Mitsukoshi – the massive retail outlet in the Japan pavilion in World Showcase. This experience has been closed for practically three several years owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, and solid members are practically nothing shy of thrilled to be again.

When you wander into Akoya Pearls, the tank of stay oysters is the initially matter you are going to see. In serious daily life, not every oyster has a pearl inside of in simple fact, it’s just about a single in about ten thousand.

At this site, every oyster contains a pearl. Most pearls are the usual whiteish colour, but I have listened to of attendees obtaining a pink just one in exceptional situations. You can order a pearl ticket at this time for $18.78 (moreover tax).

The exclusive record of pearl diving has close connections with the Ama, the free-diving “sea women” of Japan. Considered to be descendants of historic seafarers, the Ama have cost-free-dived for seafood, seaweed, and pearls for far more than 3,000 decades!

In the course of the pearling time, Ama divers live in seasonal, semi-nomadic villages and devote a lot of several hours diving beneath the h2o in research of the day’s clean capture. For each dive, the Ama tethers herself to a rope that she connects to a distinctive floating basket, then speedily descends to the seabed as significantly as 60 feet with no a respiration apparatus. Listed here, she gathers and cuts open shells in lookup of pearls in advance of she returns to the surface and areas her capture in her basket, which also serves as a buoy and a area to rest among dives.

Currently in Japan, you can nevertheless pay a visit to locations exactly where Ama ladies free-dive for saltwater pearls. At these special pearling areas, site visitors will enjoy Amas dressed in regular white diving attire, who dive beneath the water and resurface with the fresh oysters that make organic and cultured pearls.

Background signal inside Akoya Pearls

The forged associates make the practical experience exciting by creating tunes with distinctive devices.


Once you have selected your oyster, a forged member will perform on opening it and acquiring the pearl out. They have a complete set up for cleaning the pearl, and you’ll be in a position to look at the total process.

While finding a pearl by by itself is not terribly dear, there are jewelry choices obtainable for an more price. The jewelry is specially crafted to hold your pearl, and some of the solutions have a little touch of Disney.

I am a significant supporter of the Cinderella Carriage pendant!

There is a choose-a-pearl kiosk positioned at Disney Springs as well, but it isn’t the similar encounter that you can have in the Japan pavilion at EPCOT.

Have you ever participated in this enjoyment activity?

Senior Editor for The DIS and DCL Enthusiast | Disney Holiday vacation Club Member | Thrilled to have been a ’13/’14 Disney Parks Mothers Panelist (now planDisney) | Lover of all factors Disney the Magic of Disneyland, Walt Disney Planet, and Disney Cruise Line | ºoº