This was my first visit to Rausu, and this photo shows one fact of life there: I’d never seen so many seabirds in my life. It’s not surprising that a fishing village would have lots of seabirds, but this was truly astonishing: the minshuku I stayed at was located near the harbor, and the major entertainment was the cacophony of seabirds that went on until after midnight and started up again around 3:00 or so (up this far north, the sun comes up very early in the summertime).

In doing my research on Rausu, I was surprised to find that prices for accommodations were not as low as I expected. One minshuku was cheaper than the rest, and I reasoned that, although the room might be nothing much, even a low-cost place in this fishing town would probably have pretty good seafood for dinner. My gamble paid off in spades, as this photo shows; never have I had so much crab at one sitting.