Okushiri Island

The ferry from Esashi takes 2 hours 10 minutes, and near the pier the first thing to see is Nabezuru-iwa, a ring of rock 19.5 metres high standing in the sea, about 10 minutes' walk from the terminal and lit up at night. Its name comes from its likeness to the handle of a cooking pot. At 22:17 on July 12, 1993, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck off the island's southwest coast. The first tsunami wave reached Inaho, the nearest district, two or three minutes later, the run-up hit 29 metres on the west coast, and fire then burned through Aonae overnight. The island lost 198 people. It declared full recovery in March 1998, and the seawalls along the coast are built to the height the 1993 wave reached in each district. In Aonae, the memorial called Jikukakeru carries the names of the dead and its hollow faces the epicentre; the Okushiri Tsunami Museum nearby is open from mid-April to the end of October. Sea urchin is the food to come for: farmed urchin is landed from June and the wild catch starts around mid-July. Town buses are sparse, with the last departures from the ferry terminal at 15:45, so most visitors rent a car.