The Kitchen at the End of the World: A Japanese Chef’s Adventures in Antarctica

The kitchen at Shōwa Station. The brutal Antarctic winds often shook the entire structure, causing the dishes to rattle in their steel cupboards.

Managing the food supplies is an important aspect of the culinary team’s duties.

Taking the “do yoga anywhere” mantra literally, Watanuki and her colleagues gave it a go under the Antarctic sky, only to find that the mats froze hard in a matter of minutes.

Seals were a common sight near the station’s coastal observation posts.

Iceberg nagashi sōmen, a Japanese Antarctic tradition (left); Akuma no onigiri, or “devil’s rice balls.”

At the wheel of the snowcat.

The icebreaker Shirase approaches the Japanese research base on East Ongul Island against the dramatic backdrop of the Antarctic land mass.