Kushiro Marsh

The Japanese Crane Reserve is a short drive west from the hotel. It costs around 5AUD admission and contains maybe 10 pairs of cranes. Not all are Tancho (red headed). These are the rarest that are difficult to see in the wild. Winter is the best time to see them. There are a pair of sea eagles flying around as well.

It's around 13 km to the Marsh Observatory. It costs 5 AUD to view the exhibits, not worth the money so it's more of a donation. I spend much time on the walking trails (3rd photo), especially the 910m circuit from Aosagi square. The marsh is what we would call wetlands and thankfully has NO MOSSIES. In fact there's no particularly annoying insects at all, how Japanese!

It's a very sunny day so I eat my lunch in the car. I then drive clockwise around the marsh to the Kottaro viewpoint (last 2 photos). I climb the stairs to reach the top viewpoint - took no photos there so it might have been wasted effort.

Proceeding on, the road turns to unpaved gravel. Just what I need on my 2nd last day of driving! Thankfully route 391 isn't too far away so I drive back to Kushiro from the east.Read more