I don't even know the name of the eatery we went to! But when I google best restaurants in Rausu, out came Jun no Banya and I recognised the picture. I read the reviews and realised that we just "stumbled" into a good dining place! That's why I copied the title of Serendipity from a reviewer who goes by the name of AHA2006. The review was made in 2014. Thanks :)
We were in Rausu on 22 May 2017 and it was a rainy day. Earlier in the morning we had to cut short our visit to the Shiretoko 5 lakes due to the rain. Then we drove across the Shiretoko Pass to Rausu. With plenty of time to spare before our "KIller whale" cruise, we drove past the seafood market and decided to check it out. Of the many stalls we randomly chose one to ask about the sea urchin & crabs. We found out that the stall also run a restaurant nearby and we could buy the fresh seafood from the market and eat them at the restaurant. So we bought a box of sea urchin (Jpy2,500) and a big hairy crab (Jpy3,500).
By the time we got to the restaurant it started to rain again. I could only managed to take one picture of the restaurant outside! Indeed this place has character and charm. The interior decor is old school and has a number of antiques like a heater with a black kettle, etc.
The menu is quite good and price is reasonable. We also ordered the ikura-don from them. They very quickly chopped up the crab and served it together with the sea urchin plus rice and miso soup for us. The seafood was superb, very very fresh. Needless to say the sea urchin was so so sweet! Never eaten so much sea urchin before! Our driver is from Sapporo, told us that we would have to pay at least double the price in Sapporo. So happy with such a good fine! He also told us that Jun no Banya was used for location shoot for a very popular tv serial years ago.
Highly recommend Jun no Banya.