Rebun, Hokkaido

The ferry from Wakkanai takes roughly two hours, and by the time Kafuka Port comes into view, the air has already changed — cooler, saltier, carrying a faint trace of kelp. Rebun Island occupies this stretch of sea as a narrow, elongated shape, its western face a line of sheer cliffs, its eastern ridge rising to Rebunto, a peak reachable in an afternoon on foot. The island is the whole of Rebun-cho, and the town's livelihood runs between the fishing harbors — Teppufu, Nairo, Horomachi among them — and the short summer season when visitors arrive for the alpine flowers.

Those flowers are the island's particular fact. At sea-level elevations, plant species that elsewhere grow only at high altitude bloom here along coastal paths, a consequence of the cold, fog-heavy climate. The Momoiwa area shelters a designated colony of these alpine plants, and the High Alpine Botanical Garden preserves rarer endemic species including Rebun-atsumori-so. On the western coast, the trekking route known as the Ai to Roman no 8-jikan Course follows cliffs above open water for much of its length. Scoton Cape, the island's northernmost point, faces toward Sakhalin on clear days.

Ezo-bafun uni and Rishiri kelp move through the fishing economy here with the matter-of-factness of staple goods — the sea produces them, the harbors handle them, and they appear in bowls of uni-don in the island's few eating places. The Rebun-cho Local History Museum holds excavated artifacts including carved ivory figurines from the Okhotsk cultural period, and chashi earthwork remnants mark older presences on the land. The Kaijo Matsuri and Hanamatsuri mark the year's rhythm for those who live here year-round through the island's long, snow-heavy winters.