Rishiri, Hokkaido

The ferry from Wakkanai takes you west across the Japan Sea, and by the time Rishiri-zan comes into view — its cone rising steeply from the water — the island's logic is already clear: mountain and sea, with almost nothing in between. The town of Rishiri occupies the western half of the island, its settlements strung along the shoreline at Kutsugata and Senhoshi, pressed between the slope and the surf.

Rishiri kombu is harvested here, dried on the rocks, and its presence runs through the local economy quietly but persistently — in the fishing boats at Shinminato harbor, in the drying frames along the coast, in the stalls at the Nomubeyaくuubeyafestival where the island's seafood, including uni and hokke, moves from water to table with little ceremony. The Rishiri-cho Municipal Museum holds artifacts from the Ariwaki shell mound, a reminder that people have been reading this coastline for a very long time. At Senhoshi, spotted seals appear near the rocks of Senhoshi-Misaki Park with a casualness that suggests they are the more permanent residents.

The Rishiri Fureaionsen offers a carbonated bath with a view over the Japan Sea — a practical thing after a cold morning on the water, not a spectacle. In winter the island is buried under heavy snow, and the population turns inward. The national park designation of Rishiri-Rebun-Sarobetsu covers the mountain's upper reaches and the surrounding sea, but the daily texture of the place is less about protected landscapes than about the rhythms of a fishing town that has been here, in one form or another, since the days of Matsumae trading posts.