The Kashima-nada is the stretch of sea from the cape at Oarai down to Inubosaki. The Oyashio and the Kuroshio meet along it, which is why so much lives there. In spring, before spawning, the clams come in large — occasionally more than ten centimetres across.

The clams are shelled, cut into manageable pieces, and stir-fried quickly with shredded carrot and shiitake and a little seasoning. The liquid they throw off in the pan is not discarded. Water is added to it and the rice is cooked in that, with the solids stirred back through at the very end.

A clam gives more of itself to its liquor than to its flesh. That is the reasoning behind the method, and it is sound. The rice tastes of shellfish before any shellfish reaches it, and the pieces that arrive later are almost a texture rather than a flavour.

The bed has been worked for a very long time. Since 1995 the prefecture has marketed the clams collectively as Kashima-nada hamaguri, and three fishing cooperatives take turns on a rota so that no part of the bed is worked continuously. The branding and the restraint began in the same year, which is not the usual order of events for a regional name.