NEMURO, Hokkaido -- Alexander Teriokhin roams through a downtown shop, looking at guitars, jewelry and watches.
"It's my first visit to Nemuro," said Teriokhin, a 41-year-old Russian sailor from Sakhalin. "People here are very nice." Teriokhin is one of the hundreds of Russians who have visited every year since 1991, when Japan lifted the ban prohibiting Russians from entering the city.
Only 3.7 km away from Kaigarajima of the Habomai islets, Nemuro is home to 2,500 former residents of the disputed islands controlled by Russia, which also include Kunashiri, Shikotan and Etorofu.
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