Japan Trip December 2023 (1 Viewer)

[Kiwi_camper]

Hi guys,

I am heading to Japan for December this year and would love to make a jump up to Hokkaido for some birding.

I know December is a bit early, but can anyone give me advice on where to go for some birding / animal spotting.

Thank you in avdance!

 

[Andrew Whitehouse]

December should be okay. You should see the specialities e.g. Blaikiston's Fish Owl, Steller's Sea Eagle and Red-crowned Cranes. The latter two will be around in good numbers in the east. I'd recommend going on a seabird cruise from Habomai. You should get good views of auks, seaduck etc. I'd also recommend staying at Lodge Furen, where Takeyoshi should be able to assist with making arrangements. You might also find it a good idea to travel to Hokkaido by ferry, as the ferries can be extremely good for seabirds. Otherwise, it probably depends on what you're hoping to see.

 

[nartreb]

Can't help with Hokkaido but I'll give some advice you're probably getting from others already: if you're not a resident of Japan you qualify for a Japan Rail Pass, which gives you unlimited travel (within a specific time frame) on the major rail lines, including the bullet train. The seven-day pass pays for itself with one round-trip from, say, Tokyo to Kyoto. You have to purchase while overseas, get a paper ticket mailed to you (allow at least a week), and exchange that for the actual pass when you get to Japan (airport or major train station).
(The pass does not cover every shinkansen train, but this is no problem. Wait ten minutes, the next train will be covered. The pass also does not cover local subway and bus lines. You need a prepaid, reloadable card for those, available in most stations. The card system is interoperable on any bus or subway nationwide and can also be used as a debit card in shops.)

 

[Trinovid]

The rail passes are an absolute must, but for going to Hokkaido, it takes so long by train that most Japanese take a flight, and also depending on which part of Hokkaido your planning on, it could be an even bigger time saver. For example, Haneda to Memanbetsu is going to take forever by train, but just about an hour by plane.

 

[Frank van Drogen]

There's the ferry was well... Allegedly great for watching seabirds on the way.

Old-ish trip report: Ice Birds and Palms, Winter in Japan.

 

[kb57]

I took a train from Tokyo to Hokkaido a few years ago and it was a great way to travel - only problem is the Shinkansen only goes as far as the south of the island, then you get a slower train to Sapporo, and would need to change again for Kushiro (I was heading for Furano, which a further change after Sapporo).
For winter birding purposes you really want to be heading for Kushiro, and agree it is more convenient to fly there direct from Tokyo Haneda. Having said that, there is a car rental office opposite the rail station, which we ended up using as the office at the airport closes early.
Agree with Andrew that Lodge Furen is an essential stop, and he will be able to make arrangements for other sites, including pelagic trips, if you want. I'd also recommend staying at Heart n'Tree near Tsurui for the cranes, the crane centre and Otawa bridge are both a short drive away. There are a couple of options for Blakiston's fish-owl (well maybe 3, as there was a site near Lodge Furen where people had success when I was there) - the luxury option is Yoroushi Onsen at Nakashibetsu, where you're watching an owl feed on fish from a small pool just outside a glass window in the lounge.
I'm not sure if there will be much sea ice in December, but I would imagine the sea eagle feeding station near Lodge Furen will be open - you can also see both sea-eagle species together with lots of sea duck from the Netsuke peninsula a bit further north.

 

[Kiwi_camper]

Thats awesome guys!
Thank you very much for your advice

Thanks to you guys I have been in contact with Furen Lodge and secured Takeyoshi's help as a guide.
Now I am just working out how to get there: ferry or fly... comes down to available time I guess.

I really appreciate the feedback guys!

Thanks.

 

[dandsblair]

I attach a copy of our trip report which includes a week on Hokkaido which might be helpful in deciding where to stay and some birding spots.

 

[foresttwitcher]

My trip report also includes a Hokkaido section, although in February you may find some useful information: Japan - February 2020

 

[Julian H]

Go to Cloud birders on the web, and search for our (Nick Bonomo, Dave Provencher and myself) 2018 trip report that has a lot of helpful info on logistics. Sorry don't have the link to hand.

 

[albatross02]

Hi guys,

I am heading to Japan for December this year and would love to make a jump up to Hokkaido for some birding.

I know December is a bit early, but can anyone give me advice on where to go for some birding / animal spotting.

Thank you in avdance!

Overview

Japan-Birding "Birding Spots"

Japanese birdnames you can find out if you enter latin names into Japanese wikipedia

Wikipedia

ja.wikipedia.org

Japanese bird names in Kanji also showed in Katakana which you can translate with google or other.
Otherwise google has millions of failures in Japanese translation.
I use also Japanese Dictonary app Takoboto version 1.8.1 with is useful for translation and has also example sentences for words.


If you want to learn one alphabet, I would recommend Hiragana because is more used the Katakana.
Kanji learning takes long time. recommend is Heisig method.

For Hiragana japanpod101 is excellent.

Speaking Japanese words is relatively simple in comparing to Chinese or Korean.
Difficult is grammar, man and woman language, polite language and so on.

 

[nartreb]

Learning hiragana or katakana or both isn't a problem. About 50 glyphs in each, which is less than most European alphabets (upper and lower case, and then you still need to learn compounds like "sh"). Make flash cards, practice ten minutes every day, and don't stop until you're*fast*. But that won't do you all that much good, for two reasons. 1. You almost never encounter a full sentence of Japanese that doesn't mix in some Kanji. It's going to take you months to actually be literate, the best you can do in the meantime is recognize useful terms like "train station.". 2. Sounding out a word doesn't tell you what it means. (Even loanwords from English, of which there are very many, will not sound familiar.). Concentrate on vocabulary first and foremost. This takes lots of practice, i recommend Duolingo. You'll pick up a little kanji and grammar along the way.

 

[Trinovid]

Might be nice to drop pushing the OP about learning another language, especially since he never asked for it or expressed any interest in.
Not a language instruction thread anyway and I don’t remember seeing anyone told they need to dedicate their life to any other new language for a trip that will probably last less than a month.