Page 323 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Japan

TOP HOKKAIDO
Winter sun rising over large, 5
volcanic Lake Kussharo, in FOODS
Akan National Park
Kaisen don
Kaisen don is a bowl of
9 rice topped with salmon
roe and sea urchin.
Kushiro Wetlands
National Park Hairy Crab
The hairy crab is famed
釧路湿原
for its sweet flesh and
! C2 ⌂ 202 miles (326 km) creamy, buttery roe.
E of Sapporo k Kushiro
£ Kushiro Stn @ From Sapporo-Style
Kushiro n JR Kushiro Stn; Soup Curry
(0154) 22-8294 A curry-flavored soup
served with chicken and
If any creature represents
Japan, it is the tancho, or red- flash-fried vegetables.
crowned crane, regarded as a Sapporo Miso Ramen
symbol of happi ness and long Hokkaido’s hearty
Did You Know? life. A large peat swamp, an ramen is miso-based
expanse of undulating reed
The harmonics created beds bisected by streams, the and includes sweetcorn.
by pressure in the ice Kushiro Wetlands National Yubari Melon
make Lake Kussharo Park is one of the main homes Sweet Yubari melons
sound as if it of these enor mous and can cost as much as
is singing. graceful birds, which stand ¥20,000 each.
4 ft 6 in (1.4 m) high.
In the early 1900s, the
cranes were pushed to the
this vast lake freezes over verge of extinction in Japan
almost entirely in winter. by hunting and loss of habi- offer the best opportunities
Thermal vents keep tiny tat, but now protec tion and for viewing the cranes year
portions ice-free; here flocks provision of food for them round. On late winter days,
of whooper swans remain during the winter months the birds display, calling and
throughout the winter. has boosted the population dancing to one another in the
Farther east again lies Lake to around 700 birds. snow as they prepare for the
Mashu. The crater’s steep cliffs From December to March, breeding season ahead.
rise 650 ft (200 m), the water the cranes forage along In summer (May to
is astonishingly clear, and the streams and marsh edges, September), the cranes are
lake has no inlets or outlets. or fly to one of three major territorial, occupying large,
The panoramic view from the feeding sites north of Kushiro: traditional nesting grounds
crater rim takes in Mount Shari two in Tsurui vil lage and one where they usually raise just
to the north, the Shiretoko in Akan village. These sites one chick, or occasionally two.
Peninsula to the northeast,
and Lake Kussharo and
beyond to the Akan volcanoes
in the west.
The park’s forests are home
to wood peckers and other
birds, red foxes, sika deer, and
Siberian chipmunks. There are
outdoor hot-spring pools at
Akan Kohan, on Lake Akan’s
south shore, and Wakoto, on
Lake Kussharo’s south shore.

Elegant red-crowned cranes
in the snow at Kushiro
Wetlands National Park
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