Japan 4^th Jan 2005 to 18^th Jan 2005

The two countries whose cultures stand out for me the most are India and Japan. Daily life and etiquette are so different from home. Neither are particularly easy for the independent traveller, but are the more fascinating for it.

Travelling with Malcolm Schuyl we flew with the Swiss Airline from Heathrow to Tokyo’s Narita International Airport, via Zurich. Roughly a 12 hour flight. We had prebooked a rental car through Hertz, but as so often with this company there was no record of our booking at the reception desk. However the 3 young, delightful Japanese girls on duty found us a car, advised on a route, insisted we needed snow tires and arranged for the installed GPS system to be programmed for our destination.

Delightful and very wise those girls! Without the GPS system we would have struggled to have negotiated our way across Tokyo. Driving in Japan is easy as the heavy traffic moves slowly and sensibly, but map reading is difficult with a shortage of signs in Roman characters. Road numbers exist, but not always easy to spot at turns and slip roads. We started out at 0930 hours and without really getting lost once arrived in the Japanese Alps at about 1600 hours, covering a distance of only 375 km. Slow going. Even the motorways only have a top speed of 80 km an hour and other roads 50km.

When we reached the Japanese Alps we agreed with their decision on snow tyres. We would not have made much progress without them, although some winters there will be no snow at all.

We were heading for Yudanaka, which is the nearest town to the famous snow monkeys who bath in the thermal water. We stayed at Uotoshi Ryokan (Ryokan is a Japanese hotel) for around £20 a night per person, with breakfast. The owner speaks very good English and was very helpful and friendly. It is a typical Japanese style hotel. That means sleeping on the floor, squatting in the toilet and washing in a communal bath that is so hot you scream when you get in. Highly recommended. Tel 33-1215, Fax 33-0074.

The river Yomase runs through the centre of town and the main road runs along its bank. To find the hotel head upstream with the river on your right. There are many bridges crossing the river, but you want the one that is opposite the sign to Yudanaka Station (railway). It is signposted at some traffic lights and fairly easy to spot (if you see Hotel 555 on the left you have passed it). Cross the bridge and then take the third turn on the right, which is possibly a T-junction, but impossible to know as we never saw the road markings due to the snow. The hotel is about 20 metres down here on the left. It has a sign up and a small car parking area. It is only a 2 minute walk from the bridge.

It is well worth buying a Lonely Planet guide book to Japan before you go to help understand all the rules. It gets a bit complicated knowing which shoes you are supposed to wear in which rooms and how to hang a modesty towels in the communal baths. Japan is very different to the UK. It seems acceptable to piss in the streets, but blowing noses loudly in public is taboo.

We got a tourist brochure from the Ryokan with a map showing the snow monkey park. It is only 10 minutes away by car. Stay on the same side of the river as the Uotoshi Ryokan and head south on the 292 road. Not far out of town there is a sign on the left to the Monkey Park, but it was difficult to spot. Look out for a Shell Garage on the left and opposite a 7-11 shop on the right hand side. If you see them you have just passed the sign by about 30 metres, so turn around.

Once you find the turning follow the road up hill and around some tight turns. After another 2-3 minutes driving there is another more obvious sign for the monkey park. Leave the car here and follow the signpost along a woodland trail. The walk took us about 20 minutes. Just after you pass a wooden building on the left, go up the concrete steps to the right. Very shortly the entrance to the park appears. The entry cost was £2.50 per person. The thermal pool is another 200 metres walk after the entrance. Opening hours are 0900 to 1600 hours in winter and slightly longer in the summer.

The pool is man made and hardly attractive. Awful black pipes hang off the surrounding cliffs and metal fences are everywhere. It can be a struggle to avoid unsightly backgrounds, but getting close to the monkeys is not a problem. Frame filling pictures can be had with 20mm lenses.

They were fed at 0900 hours and 1200 hours when we were there and occasionally at other times too, so perhaps these times are not strictly adhered to. I used fill in flash a lot of the time. The sun never gets into the steep valley, but the snow ensured there was a lot of reflected light. I also took pictures with a 70-200mm and 600mm lenses, mainly of the monkeys out of the water sitting in the snow. We were lucky that there was a lot of snow on the floor, which added to the pictures, but we really wanted a heavy snow fall that settled on the monkey’s heads. We stayed 3 days for this, but it didn’t happen.

Nobody objected when we jumped down below the fence on the right hand side of the pool so as to get level with the monkeys. Although there is someone on duty keeping an eye on things all day.

Alpine accentor

There is little else to photograph here. The only bird we managed was an alpine accentor, which came in a couple of times one day, but not seen subsequently. We explored the ski slopes higher up the mountain, but found nothing to photograph there.

It would be possible to travel to Yudanaka by train from Tokyo and save on the car hire cost. From the railway station you could walk (15 minutes) to the Ryokan we stayed at or take a taxi. That would mean getting a taxi to the snow monkey park each day and arranging to be collected. The Ryokan owner could arrange this for you. In fact he would probably do it himself for a fee. He owns a minibus, which I suspect he uses to transport skiers to the slopes. Alternatively there is the Koraku-kan, which is a hotel very close to the snow monkey pool (Tel 33-4376). This was about £50 a night to stay, but that might include meals. We didn’t ask. It is certainly convenient, but I am not sure how you get all your luggage there. I suspect it has to be carried the 20 minute walk along the trail to the snow monkeys. It might be worth finding out.

We explored other birdwatching sites on the mainland of Japan, but got no other pictures. Great birdwatching, poor photography. We then flew to the northern island of Hokkaido and the airport at Kushiro. We had prebooked a car hire here to through Club Tocoo and that worked well. Hire cars have snow tires as standard here in the winter as it is much colder and snow is normal. You will need a lot of warm clothing.

Japanese crane

The car was a Mazda Demio and although it was not very large the rear windows went all the way down for photography. It did not have a GPS system, but was available if we had preordered. Map reading is much simpler on Hokkaido however and the roads very quiet.

We were given a map with the car hire showing the route to Tsuni-mura, which is about 45 minutes away. This is one of the centres for the Japanese crane and a regular tourist attraction. There are several sites here where they are fed and come in very close. We stayed at the Hotel Taito, which can’t be missed on the left as you enter the small village. It cost about £48 a person with dinner and breakfast, but well worth it as the owner is a bird photographer. The prints on the wall are his and he has at least 2 books published on cranes. They are for sale in the hotel shop. He has some English and will advise on where to go to photograph the cranes. Ask especially were to be at dawn and dusk. He gave us a small map printed especially for this purpose.

Japanese crane

We visited each of the viewpoints marked on the map around Tsuni and got pictures at most. There was usually a mass of Japanese photographers around as well. There is a bridge where they gather at dawn to photograph the cranes in the morning mist. We got there at 0500 hours and already the photographers were present. They had lined up their tripods along the bridge and were now keeping warm in their cars avoiding the -12c temperature. It’s a bit like the Germans putting towels down on the beach! The sun did not come up until 0705, but we did not know that!

Typically of the Japanese though, when we foreigners arrived they politely waved us to the front. They are always friendly and considerate.

Japanese crane roost at dawn

Slightly away from the village of Tsuni is the Akan Crane Centre. Again we got a leaflet and map from the hotel showing its location. The drive took about 40 minutes. It is on road 240 heading north from Kushiro Airport. Akan is the first town you come to and the crane centre is 4 km north on the right hand side. There is a sign.

Unlike the sites around Tsuni, there was a charge to get in of £2. Again there were many photographers present. We were happily photographing the cranes for about an hour when, at 1400 hours, a man appeared carrying a bucket and throwing live fish out onto the snow. We thought this was for the cranes, but as soon as he walked off we were amazed to see dozens of black kite and white tailed eagles come swopping in.

Black kite

For the next 30 minutes or so both species flew around just like the red kites at Gigrin farm in Wales. An amazing sight that resulted in excellent flight pictures taken with lenses from 300mm and upwards. On a second visit a stellers eagle joined the white tailed, but did not come as close. 

White-tailed sea-eagle

Our next stop was lake Kussharoka, which is about another hours drive north. On the east side of the lake at Suneyu there is a small car park full of very tame whopper swans. If there is no snow on the floor this site would be a complete waste of time. It is simply a car park between two shops and very messy. When the snow is falling heavy however, it is transformed and there have been some beautiful pictures taken here over the years. We were lucky to a degree in that some snow was falling, but not really enough. A site worth calling in at if you are passing through. We stayed one night, in the hope of fresh snow overnight, at the Pension Papilio, which is about 1 km south of the swans. It cost £45 per person, including dinner and breakfast.

White-tailed sea-eagle

The next port of call was Rausu on the Shiretoko peninsula in the north-east. This is the town where many white tailed and stellers eagles congregate in the winter and boat trips take you out amongst them. The boat trips start in the middle of February, when the ice flows arrive, so for us it was disappointing. We stayed one night and took a few pictures of sika deer that hang around town, jungle crows and slaty-backed and glaucous gulls in the harbour.   

Whooper swan

Overall we found Rausu a frustrating place to photograph. The sika deer never had good backgrounds and there were many houses, fences and signs getting in the way of the gull pictures too. If the boats had been running I am sure it would have been worth staying.

Whooper swan

We left about midday and headed south towards the Nemuro peninsula in the south east of Hokkaido. On the road 244, a few kilometres south of Shibetsu we came to the village of Odaito and on the southern edge there was a car park with more tame whooper swans. The water was icy here, which made it very attractive to photograph the whoopers and pintail ducks, although the light could have been better. It is well worth stopping at and we returned the following day hoping for better light. On both days the pintails were in the air a great deal and there was great potential for flight shots if only the sun had shone.

Whooper swan

Just before the town of Nemuro is a nature centre on the left hand side of the road. We made a few enquiries here about birds and accommodation and was recommended to stay at the Field Inn. To find it we had to go back the way we had come (westwards) and cross one bridge over a river. Then there was a sign to Furo-so off to the left. We took this and the Furo-so or Field Inn is on the left. The owner had excellent English and was a serious birdwatcher and a great source of information. The cost was £32 including breakfast and evening meal. The bedroom was a bit odd, but I imagine it is a shared one that sleeps 6 people on a large double bunk bed. 3 up and 3 down. We were the only guests so we did not find out.

Whooper swan

We explored the strip of land on the east side of Lake Furen, which had a lot of sika deer. Pictures would have been easy from the car, except it was a very dull day. To get there head north on the road 244 towards Shibetsu and turn right after you have passed the lake. The turning is signed to Hashirikotan.

Glaucous gull

Lake Furen had many stellers and white tailed eagles sitting on the ice at various locations, but we had no success getting close to them in good photographic situations. White tailed eagles are easy to get within 30 feet of from the car, but they were never in photogenic spots.

Slaty-backed gull

We found a road killed sika deer and cut off its rear legs to use as bait.  The place we choose was behind a sign saying canoe centre, not far west of the nature centre. There is a small harbour just down the track here and we placed the legs on the ice and retired to the car. The only birds that came down were crows, although many eagles and kites flew over.

Northern pintail

The following day we tried again using two large fish scrounged from a fishing harbour, but without success. Frustrating as in the nature centre is a photograph of fisherman on the ice surrounded by eagles waiting for them to through a fish.

Overall I enjoyed Japan a lot, although we did not photograph that many species. What we did do was well worth it, especially the white tailed eagles and whopper swans in the snow.

Footnote

In February 2009 I am leading a tour to Japan for Wildshots where we will revisit all the above sites and hopefully get to grips with Stellers eagle too.