William. Minamata is one of the most beautiful towns in Japan. Its seacoast is splendid, and I found myself cracking oysters from the rocks and nibbling them up - and then I thought, maybe this is not the wisest thing to do. The first sign of the mercury poisoning in Minamata was cats going into convulsions - they had consumed the mercury-contaminated fish. Fortunately, the source of the pollution is gone, but its legacy remains.