1 / 3Whole crab, boiled to orderPhoto: Nishimuraya Kinosaki Onsen / CC BY 2.0
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Checked against official sources · updated · Takumi Yamada
Buy a crab boiled that morning and crack it yourself — cheaper than any restaurant. Matsuba-gani only from 6 November (males to 20 March); before that it is beni-zuwai, red snow crab, local and far cheaper. The centre is closed on Tuesdays.
- Short enough to be certain of: 2 hr door to door, so even a tender day works.
- Closed on Tuesdays. Check the day before you plan around it.
- 2 hr door to door needs a 4-hour call: a 2–3 hour stop cannot hold it. Pick something closer instead.
- No single published ride covers this one. Budget for a taxi both ways, or fold it into a guided day.
Why Whole crab, boiled to order is famous
Matsuba-gani is the male snow crab of this coast, landed between November and March under a strictly enforced season. Each legal crab carries a coloured tag identifying its port. Boiled whole is the plain form, because the meat does not need anything done to it.
Three places, three different answers
The one the queue agrees on, the one people who live here use instead, and the one nearest your ship. Opening days change; check before you build a day around one.
Routes that already include it
Each one is a finished day timed from the official timetables, with this stop in it. Read the route rather than assembling it yourself.
What to put beside it
Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare.
3 hr 30 min for bothYokai sweets: the eyeball daddy
Shops along the Road sell Medama-oyaji, the eyeball father, as sweets — the souvenir photo and the souvenir, in one.
See the detail
4 hr for bothMizuki Shigeru Road
178 bronze yokai spirits line the 800 metres from the station to the museum — Japan’s strangest, most charming main street, drawn from the manga master born here.
See the detail