Andrea and David's trip to Japan, July 2011

Day 7: 23-7-11 Sapporo to Kushiro and Kushiro Wetlands- (Day 6 - Day 8) - birdlist - bird gallery

We took the 9 O'clock train from Sapporo in the west of Sapporo to Kushiro in the east (4 hours), checked into the Royal Hotel adjacent to the station then rushed back to the station to catch the local excursion train into the Kushiro Wetlands National Park which is vast. About the size of Tokyo. We visited Toro, the part reputed to be house a lot of water birds. We saw 22 herons in a flock, and about as many ducks, and a Red-Necked Grebe as well as various interesting local swamp birds including, sound-wise, the rather fanatical Japanese Bush-Warbler. The little bastards sit IN the bush, so it takes some luck to see the little creatures We also saw a chipmunk and several deer. But no Japanese Cranes :-(

We took the evening train back to Kushiro and found a local, and we mean very local restaurant, in the evening which served rather good fish (Bream-like and skate). Clearly the only foreigners they have had for ages. Then we headed on to the local charity festival (Grøn Concert) where we were apparently the only foreigners among thousands of Japanese. About 5% of the girls were wearing traditional clothes (kimono) but besides that, they behaved like young girls everywhere else in the world :-).