Kurils/Kunashir: Pacific Coast & Yuzhno-Kurilsk
Kunashir Island stretch north south with the Sea of Okhotsk on the western side and the Pacific Ocean with no land in sight on the Easter side. Several beautiful natural sites are scattered along the pacific side – like the Devil’s Finger seastack, beautiful beaches, and the yellow cliffs in the south. The town of Yuzhno-Kurilsk is also here, the only settlement of size on the island. It boasts a new Orthodox Church (to show Japanese whose land it is) and a Lenin statue, and that’s pretty much it – restaurants are non-existent, one cafe offering frozen fish sushi made by a Kyrgyz “chef”, one awful hotel with shared bathrooms and a total “nazi” in the hotel cafeteria with atrocious food – not an island vacation destination by any means.
