Akamoku Bowl
Edible seaweed is seasoned and served with raw egg and other ingredients in akamoku-don, a regional rice bowl dish popular in the town of Yura. The name comes from its main ingredient, a brown seaweed known as akamoku (Sargassum horneri), which is prized for its high nutritional value compared with other varieties of seaweed. In particular, it has higher concentrations of fucoidan, a polysaccharide purported to have health benefits ranging from fighting cancer to beautifying the skin.
Akamoku-don is served at accommodations and restaurants around Yura, including the restaurant in the visitor center of Shirasaki Ocean Park. Each venue has its own version of the dish, but the key ingredients are always rice and locally harvested akamoku. Some variations include toppings such as whitebait, perilla leaf, pickled plum, and avocado. In others, the toppings all possess a viscous texture (like the seaweed itself), such as grated yam, fermented beans, and okra.