LOGISTICS
FLIGHTS:
We flew from Heathrow T5 with BA direct for £702 each....you can get to Japan alot cheaper but will take alot longer (we had Avios points to use so that saved us over £100). My days of resorting to 24+hr journeys to get to a destination just to keep financial costs down are over I'm afraid – I'd rather just get there quicker now! Flight times were 11.5hrs outbound and 11hrs inbound, on a new 777 and mostly smooth. Food was a bit 'meh' on the way out but better on the way back. If you're a couple travelling on a 777 try and get into rows 49 or 50, right at the back of the plane as there are only two seats either side and you're right near the rear galley so have plenty of chances to raid the free tuck shop!! We landed into Tokyo Narita and departed Tokya Haneda.
We booked our internal flights before we left using the JAL Airpass which gave us 5 sectors for £308 each. Sorting it was a bit problematic as BA were pretty clueless about it (even though they're part of the alliance) but we finally got hold of a great lady at JAL who sorted everything over the phone with us. All flights were on new aircraft and all trouble-free. You can't change the first sector after it's booked but all the others can be, so all good.
The Narita-Amami sector was booked through Vanilla Air for £120 each as the departure time was only 3hrs after our arrival at Narita so it fitted in nicely....if making for a long initial day! The flight was delayed by 40mins outbound but we were emailed about this the previous day.
TRANSPORT:
You will need to obtain an International Driving Permit when hiring cars in Japan. Make sure it's the one that covers Japan...obviously! They cost about £5 from the post office (not all POs issue them though) where they'll do it whilst you wait – you just need a passport photo and relevant ID.
We used hire cars at all destinations, booking them before we left. All had English satnavs which made finding birding spots very easy. All you need for your destination is a phone number and it'll take you to the door! If we needed a to locate a really obscure place we'd find it the previous night on Googlemaps using our phones, screengrab it and then match the site on the satnav, tap it and hit the guidance button...simples!! Driving is on the left so good for us. We also hired an ETC card to make the toll roads trouble-free...which it did....but the toll roads are very expensive – again, if there's a group it won't be quite so bad! We only used tolls around Karuizawa, the main run up and down Kyushu and also on Okinawa.....so not that many kms really, but the bill still came to the best part of £200 after we got home....ouch – I will never moan about the Dartford tolls ever again!!
The card can be sent to wherever is easiest for you to pick it up – we grabbed it an the post office in Narita airport (after forgetting on day 1...oops!) and posted it back in Tokyo.
We also used the super-cool shinkansen (bullet train) from Tokyo-Karuizawa which was simple to sort out, costs about £37pp each way and is soooooo smooth as it blasts along at 200mph – cool!! I'd think it's quite hard to find anyone that doesn't become an instant trainspotter when these things pull into the station...I certainly did and am not embarassed to admit it!
We used the local train between Karuizawa and Naka-Karuizawa and also used the Metro system all over Tokyo on the last couple of days. Tickets are all pretty simple to buy as the machines in the stations all have an English button – sweet!!
We travelled down to the Izu Islands on the Tachibana-maru, operated by Tokai Kisen Ferries, that leaves Takeshiba-sanbashi near JR Hamamatsucho station in Tokyo at 2230. It costs c£43pp each way for a 2nd-class berth that basically involves sleeping on the floor in your assigned space. At peak times you'll be sharing with 9 other people but at this time of the year we had a whole room to ourselves. There are coin-operated lockers for your gear also. Remember that you can only buy a one-way ticket at the Tokyo office (which re-opens at about 2030) so have to buy another on the island before you return.
We left our main bags in overnight lockers at the train station for ¥600 per day but because you'll pick it up the following day it counts as two days. There are bigger lockers at the ferry terminal itself where we could have put both our main bags in together but that would've meant lugging them down to it and back again!
There are two options for the birder really: get off on Miyakejima and have c6hrs birding time or stay on the ferry until the last island of Hachijojima, have about 40mins on the island to maybe see the thrush before returning. This gives you more time seawatching but both options sail through the 'Oshima Triangle' on the return which is where the alberts are. To me it's a no-brainer as the former gives you time to get the thrush & tit, and a good chance of Jap Robin which winter here.
The ferry (usually) arrives at Miike Port on Miyakejima at 0500 where you'll find two buses waiting at the dock. Get on the one that goes to Tairo-Ike (just ask driver) and then c10mins later get off and huddle in the bus stop until it gets light enough to bird! The ferry returns by 1300ish and leaves at 1335 – ask in the Akakokko-kan Nature Centre by the lake to find out what time and (more importantly!) which port the ferry will be at as there are 3 ports on the island and the weather conditions will dictate the one it uses. The staff usually can't check this until c1100 and they'll also give you a bus timetable.
ACCOMMODATION:
All booked through Booking.com (except Furen Lodge & Washi-no-yado), either before we left or whilst in-country. Most hotels were usually payable on arrival. All had free WiFi (except Washi-no-yado). Electricity is two-pin plugs.
In Japan, etiquette requires you to wear slippers inside any habitation so all guesthouses provide these just inside the main entrance.
• We contacted Take-san at Furen Lodge (
[email protected]) probably later than we should have done and he let us know dates we could stay at his great place – which is why we nipped down to Amami first! It's not cheap but he and his wife, Masako are amazing hosts. The food is excellent – if you don't eat seafood then tell them in advance and they'll make you something else...phew!! Breakfast is usually huge slabs of toast with an array of their gorgeous homemade jams. Whenever you come back in during the day, Take-san will usually greet you with a warming cup of green tea to help heat your core again! Rooms are large with heaters, facilities are shared but this never felt a problem as usually the other guests are fellow birders so it has more of a family feel to it. Dinner is taken all together in the dining room overlooking his feeding station and is great place to swap info. Take-san knows alot of sites and is more than happy to help out. He can also arrange fish-owl viewing/staying and boat trips on Hokkaido and Kyushu for the murrelet.
• Washi-no-yado is the traditional Blakiston's site and Take-san had arranged for us to stay here when we contacted him. Now, it may be an experience but at £115 for the night it's bloody pricey for what it offers....the bed is a roll-out-on-the-floor affair you have to make yourself, facilities are shared and the walls are not the thickest. The price breakdown is probably £15 for the room and food and the rest for the owl!
You can stay in Rausu and just visit for the owl – not sure how much this costs. There are two options: you can sit in the heated dining room where they take the windows out for photography or you can go in the bus...where there's no heater. Once you're in, you have to stay so as not to disturb the stars when they arrive – but be warned, it was about -18 the night we were there and sometimes the owls don't turn up til after 2300!! As we sat up in our top-floor room, heater blaring, wearing just thin sweatshirts we looked over at the shadowy figures huddled in the bus, looked back at each other and both said "Sod that, it's only a £100"......!!!!
There is another option for about £5 more which we found out about too late: Daichii Yoroushi Onsen (
www.yoroushi.jp/english), a lovely posh place about 45mins west of Rausu in Nakashibetsu Town where the owl comes in next to the dining room. I know where I'd go next time...and there's a good chance of Solitary Snipe on the river too...allegedly!
• Due to flight times usually landing into Tokyo Haneda fairly late and leaving early the next morning we used the JAL City Hotel as it is nearby and, more importantly, has a free shuttle bus. It's where most of the crews stay and whilst not particularly cheap (because we left it to the last minute to book so that didn't help!) it was handy. Typical Tokyo hotel: small and clean.
• In Naka-Kariuzawa we stayed at Bell's Cabin which was a nice place. The owner is very welcoming but it can be a bit noisy when busy as the walls aren't the thickest and the floors in the halls are wooden. Breakfast is great – especially the eggs benedict! It's only about 1.5kms to walk to the Bird Forest and there is a basic feeder outside too. Not too far to walk to it from the station either.
• On Kyushu we stayed in Wing International in Izumi City for one night. Good price with a very large room and bed...with comfy pillows too!!
• We then stayed over on the east coast in Aoshima, just south of Miyazaki in the quaint Aoshima Guesthouse Hooju – a surfer's lodging, cheap and cheerful with very thin walls (!), shared facilities and free off-street parking.
• For the last night on Kyushu we stayed back in Fukuoka in the APA Watanabe Dori. Again, simple, small rooms within walking distance of lots of restaurants. About 15mins drive to the airport by taxi.
• On Amami we stayed in the Hotel Caretta which was lovely, about 15mins drive from the airport and has scops-owls out the back!
• On Okinawa we stayed at the Ada Garden Hotel for a couple of nights. Lovely place with plenty of rails around it, one seen crossing the road out front! One thing to remember about this hotel in the off-season (only I presume?) is that the restaurant isn't open unless you give them 3-4 days notice that you want food!! We didn't know this so they made us a meal for the second night – kinda weird as it was three courses, we were the only people there and had two waiters with us...the entire time!! Food was nice though
First night we drove back into Kunigami (about 20min drive tops) and found a lovely little Peruvian restaurant run by a cool local called La Cabana. The chain-smoking granny in the corner aside, we had nice rice and beer...what more do you need? One other thing – the initial booking I made was for around £100 per night but whilst in Karuizawa we checked through Expedia.com and found it for about £75 for the same period – so we cancelled the Booking.com reservation and went with the new one!
• We stayed back in Naha for the last night in the Libre Garden Hotel. Have to pay for parking but otherwise hotel was functional.
• In Tokyo we stayed in the Monterey Akasaka for three nights for a bit of touristy R&R. Again, Tokyo not cheap, but the hotel was fine and nicely placed to explore the city.
FOOD:
Generally pretty much what you'd expect – during the day we used 7-11s and other supermarkets (be aware that most fuel stations don't have food shops attached like we're used to). We ate out every night in various restaurants from local foodies, to Italian, Thai and a couple of fast-food ones too for good measure! The local restaurants serve some excellent fried rice and beef and is pretty cheap – although I'd recommend always going large (or even ordering 2!) as portion sizes are a little smaller than we're used to. All restaurants in the towns had life-size and very real looking models of their dishes outside in a cabinet so you can always resort to the finger-point method of ordering.
MONEY:
Whilst we were there, ¥1000 = roughly £6 so we worked things out around that general figure. ATMs were used a couple of times with the ones in airports or 7-11s the most reliable with international cards. We paid for most hotels, car-hire and petrol with our cards too without any problems.
WEATHER:
All we heard from the locals when talking weather was 'It's a funny year.....'. That meant it was unseasonally mild throughout our trip, even on Hokkaido where it may have been -19oC at times but except for a short blizzard on our first day it was blue skies and relatively windless for the remainder. But this also meant there was practically no sea-ice anywhere in the Nemuro or Rausu areas. Amami was mild, bit chilly first thing. Honshu was again pretty much snowless (except in the central mountains where it was like a winter wonderland but still not freezing. We had one drizzly day here that turned to heavy snow overnight. Kyushu was warmer and milder whereas Okinawa was +26oC under a blazing sun in blue skies – this meant having to stop and buy shorts!!
USEFUL INFO:
There are so many trip reports out there it's hard to pick any specific one. Check Cloud Birders for a good spread that coincides with your dates.
It's also worth joining Kantori Yahoo Group as you can keep up-to-date with the latest sightings and ask questions directly to the people in the know.
Thanks especially to Chris Cook and Nigel Moorhouse and of course Micky Maher and Paul French for all the info and help....these guys were brilliant as they were doing the same itinerary as me, just a couple of weeks ahead
