Land of the Rising Sun

A family summer holiday in July to Japan.

The Greater Tokyo Area contains over 38 million people - the most populous metropolitan area in the world. Better then go up the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building to take a look.

An unexpected green oasis was laid out before us: Yoyogi Park.

It really is a sanctuary, where one can walk through cathedrals of trees oblivious to the surrounding frantic consumerism.

White-cheeked Starlings (Spodiopsar cineraceus) hop around.

A Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) of the Japanese sub-species saturatus is on the alert...

...as her fledged chicks are calling her - though they look big enough to fend for themselves.

Of course she does the motherly thing and feeds them.

Beware the crow my son! There are an estimated 40,000 Japanese Crows (Corvus macrorhynchus japonensis) in Tokyo. It is said they scatter rubbish and intimidate children and old people. They seem to have filled an empty niche usually filled by Teddy Boys.

There are lots of good things in the National Museum of Nature and Science. For instance, not only can you see the cicadas of Japan - you can hear them singing by pressing buttons..

And there are plenty of examples of insect speciation on the achipelago - here for stag beetles.

But Tokyo is bonkers. Best to move on.

Hiroshima is a quiet city by Japanese standards.

Off its coast is Miyajima island, to which one is welcomed by a submerged gateway leading to a stilted temple spread over the beach.

It's a good place to see a typical traditional Japanese town house. Aesthetically and functionally close to perfection. But I would miss a compost heap and some wild animals.

The visitor's toilet is even more functional - one day it will also be an exhibit.

In Kyoto we rented a cozy town house in the back streets.

Our mission was to visit as many temples as we could before we succumbed to heat stroke. I liked the Japanese idea of worshiping frogs rather than bearded men.

To maintain sanity, I sat in the shade and sketched a temple.

I noticed in Kyoto a large number of representations of Cranes. Here they are carved on the main karamon gate to 17th century Ninomaru Palace, in Nijo Castle:

Here on the shutters of a market stall...

...and here on a fan and a wall hanging in our living room.

I have been known get up at three in the morning to look for wildlife - but rarely to watch television. But this time surely 'it's coming home'.

At least I came home (insert Japanese emoji with sad face).

It was time for maman to fly back home to Switzerland and create some shareholder value. So Lara and I jumped on a plane and headed to the north island, Hokkaido.

Welcoming us at Kushiro airport - cranes!

We drove east to the Nemuro peninsula, to a small wooden house on the northern shore - Minshuku Furen.

The owner is an ornithologist who rents out rooms to like-minded people. His wife prepares some of the most delicious food you could imagine - most of it taken out of the sea beyond the wall at the end of their garden. The parents of the local nature warden were visiting, and stayed the night. As a boy, on the 6th of August 1945, the father saw the sky light up and felt a shock of airwaves in his village - just outside of Hiroshima.

At breakfast a Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) slipped past the window.

In front of the house a Yezo Sika Deer (Cervus nippon yesoensis), indigenous to Hokkaido, nibbled on a cherry tree.

A stroll outside and into the dawn chorus filled with the song of Black-browed Reed Warblers (Acrocephalus bistrigiceps).

A Stejneger's Stonechat (Saxicola stejnegeri) sat on a wire.

And another wire walker, a White Wagtail (Moticilla alba) - of the Japanese sub-species lugens.

The Oriental Crow (Corvus corone orientalis) coexists with the Japanese Crow throughout Japan.

Minshuku Furen lies next to a small harbour, where a nature centre has been built, at the furthest easterly point of Lake Furen - an inlet from the sea which is a bird sanctuary. 

We took a stroll into the small ancient wood by the nature centre. I heard there were Japanese Pygmy Woodpeckers in there. We didn't see any, but there were plenty of Great Spotted Woodpeckers (Dendrocopos major) of the Hokkaido sub-species japonicus. Here a male, with its red cap...

...and a female without.

And a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker (Dryobates minor) - only found in Hokkaido, where it is scarce and local. It is of the sub-species amurensis.

The small ponds were packed with tadpoles - presumably of the Ezo Brown Frog (Rana pirica), confined to Hokkaido. It used to be considered a population of the Common Frog we find in Europe.

There was a picture of them in the visitors' centre.

Cryptic on the trees were Neope niphonica, the only Japanese species of a Nymphalid genus which has 20 species found over east Asia.

And a Skipper I won't begin to identify.

We looked over the coast, where the wood met the sea...

...and saw White-tailed Eagles (Haliaeetus albicilla) flying past and resting on the rocks.

I thought I was lucky to see the eagles - but when I walked to the harbour I saw one sitting on the wall waiting to be fed by the fishermen.

Also hanging around for fish, a Black-tailed Gull (Larus crassirostris).

We walked out along a wooden walkway by the sea.

Across the water we could see the brown wooden walls of our lodgings.

Hokkaido is the natural habitat of the Sakhalin Spruce (Picea glehnii). Near the sea they are broken from past tsunamis.

On one of the trees a Black-faced Bunting (Emberiza spiodocephala) of the Japanese sub-species personata, here for the summer, sang his heart out. Some consider this a separate species, the Masked Bunting, but not the IOC.

Skylarks (Alauda arvenis) of the japonica sub-species hovered singing in the sky.

The sandbanks were littered with what I assume are Japanese Mud Snails (Batillaria attramentaria). They have spread to the east coast of America, where they are considered an 'invasive' species.

A very nervous Oriental Turtle Dove (Streptopelia orientalis) looked for food.

And walking in the river estuary, a now familiar shape - a crane!

The Red-crowned Crane (Grus japonensis) was almost hunted to extinction in Japan in the 19th century, and by the 1920s there were less than 20 left only in the marshes of east Hokkaido. Later conservation work has increased their number here to around 1,000, with a number of birds unusually being resident throughout the year. They usually migrate, breeding in Siberia and northern China and flying south to central China and Korea for the winter. The red crown is actually bear red skin, which becomes brighter during the mating season. They are big birds, with wing spans of up to 2.5 metres, and can live for over fifty years. The crane is now the logo of Japan Airlines - the idea an American branding expert. We watched the male fishing.

On the grassy bank a female, recognized by a greyer neck, was preening her feathers before practicing her dance.

At her feet her chick.

The male finished fishing, and joined his family. The pair danced together to continue their bonding over the chick.

We drove up to Rausu on the island's north-east peninsula...

...to catch a boat to observe some sea wildlife.

In the harbour a Slaty-backed Gull (Larus schistisagus) watched us from a lamp post.

A Temminck's (or Japanese) Cormorant (Phalacrocorax capillatus) poked its head over the rocks off shore.

As we left harbour, a White-tailed Eagle flew over carrying a fish.

Out at sea we passed rafts of Short-tailed Shearwaters (Ardenna tenuirostris). Each northern summer they arrive all the way from Australian waters where they breed in the southern summer, mainly in Tasmania.

Northern Fulmars (Fulmarus glacialis) flew past. They are of the sub-species rogersii, that occurs in the sea between Siberia and Alaska.

They are a variable species, with a number of morphs. Some are light...

...but others are dark.

And, just recognizable, a Rhinoceros Auklet (Cerorhinca monocerata) - a bird of the north Pacific coasts.

Breaking the surface water, the mammal that most of the passengers had come to see: Dall's Porpoise (Phocoenoides dalli) - only found in the north Pacific.

The guide on the boat held up a picture of the two morphs, both of which can be seen here. I don't know which one we saw.

We stayed in a small B&B, where they had dammed the stream in front of the restaurant window to make a little pond. At nightfall, under the light of a lamp, Blakiston's Fish Owls (Bubo blakistoni) flew in from the forest to feed on dead fish which were put into the pond. They're actually Eagle Owls. Thomas Blakiston was an English naturalist who noticed that animals in Hokkaido were related to north Asian species, whereas those from Honshu were related to south Asian species - separated by the zoogeographical boundary now known as 'Blakiston's line'.

We drove up to a woodland nature reserve above Rausu.

As well as being afraid of crows, the Japanese are cautious of bears.

As we walked up the road to the reserve we passed people hiking with bells attached to their shoes, to ward off bears. A little excessive I thought. We turned a corner, and sitting on the bank of the road... Hokkaido's Ussuri Brown Bear (Ursus acrtos lasiotus).

Once the bear had slinked off, we continued into the wood.

A Eurasian Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes) of the Japanese sub-species fumigatus was hopping around...

...tending after a fledged youngster.

This time I did see a Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker (Yungipicus kizuki) - the Hokkaido sub-species seebohmi.

But the prize was a male Narcissus Flycatcher (Ficedula narcissina), a summer visitor to Japan from south-east Asia, singing its heart out on a branch. We watched it for many minutes.

We pushed into the centre of eastern Hokkaido

It is an area of volcanic activity.

Large lakes such as Lake Mashu have formed in the calderas of dormant volcanoes.

Here we watched a singing Japanese Bush Warbler (Horonis diphone). It is resident throughout Japan, except Hokkaido where it is a summer visitor.

We stayed at a Hotel on Lake Kussharo. In the surrounding woods we saw another woodpecker treat, the wonderful White-backed Woodpecker (Dendrocopos leucotos) - the subcirrus sub-species of Hokkaido. There are three other sub-species in Japan.

A big push to Lake Utonai, near Tomakomai, on the south-west coast.

A juvenile Stejneger's Stonechat watched us.

Resting in the canopy, a Diana Treebrown (Lethe diana) - a Siberian/Japanese species.

Day flying Cystidia stratonice Geometrid moths slowly flitted from flower to flower.

A big juicy caterpillar.

A Smaller Green Flower Chafer (Oxycetonia jucunda).

A Carabid beetle with a damaged elytra.

We stayed in a youth hostel with a spa bath on the nearby Lake Shikotsu.

Japanese Green Pigeons were calling from the woods - so we went in search.

Wild hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens) coloured the sides of the path.

A Blue-and-white Flycatcher (Cyanoptila cyanomelana) greeted us.

Plebejus subsolanus - found through Siberia, Mongolia and Japan. Much of the taxonomy of this species was done by Vladimir Nabokov. He also wrote some non-entomological books.

We saw a couple of beetles. A Longhorn...

...and a Silphid Burying Beetle.

A cute fluffy fly landed next to me.

Nordmann's Orb Spider (Araneus nordmanni).

There are over twenty species of Euhadra snails - only one is found outside of Japan.

Our final destination - Hakodate.

The port has a European feel to it, with old brick dock buildings and wooden houses.

On the peninsula, a Meadow Bunting (Emberiza cioides) - the Japanese ciopsis sub-species.

And, as in Kazakhstan, the last bird I photographed was a tit - A Japanese Tit (Parus minor) - the north-western Asian Great Tit. This species diverges further, with eight sub-species.

It was a joy searching for nature in Hokkaido, and to share it with my beautiful daughter Lara.