Arame grows in shallow water, two or three meters down, and around the harbors. The name comes from its surface, which is rough and uneven. Oki sits out in the Sea of Japan and takes the full weight of the winter swell, and the local claim is that rough water makes better seaweed.

The kelp beds run more or less continuously from the waterline down to about twenty meters, which amounts to a great deal of standing crop for such a small group of islands.

Dried arame is soaked in water for around two hours, during the course of which it slowly recovers its spring and body. Then it is fried in a pan with carrot and slivers of fried tofu, and finished by simmering in dashi until everything has taken the flavor. It is a plain dish. It is also, still, ordinary weeknight food in island houses.

The harvest is done by hand and remains a fixture of the Oki winter. Primary schools on the islands serve this at lunch, and it turns up at community gatherings and at cooking classes aimed at men, which is its own small piece of social history. The catch itself has been declining for some years now, and everyone involved in it is perfectly aware of that.