Japan Guide
Hokkaidō
Kushiro Shitsugen National Park
Japan's largest protected wetland, at 18,300 hectares, is the Kushiro Shitsugen National Park. Birdwatchers flock here in winter to see the area's Tancho cranes, but the wetlands are home to many other birds and animals, including deer, grey herons, Whooper swans and eagles.
One of the best places to observe the cranes is actually just north of the park, in the fields near the village of TSURUI, an hour's drive north of Kushiro, at the Tsurui Ito Japanese Crane Sanctuary (Oct– April Thurs– Mon 9am–4.30pm) run by the Wild Bird Association of Japan (Nihon Yacho no Kai). Half an hour further nprovinceorth of here towards Akan, the Akan International Crane Centre GRUS (Nov– March daily 9am–5pm; April– Oct closed Monday 9am–5pm; ¥400) has breeding facilities and a reasonably interesting exhibition hall.
The park is best toured by car, but the Akan-ko-bound bus from Kushiro Station also passes several of the facilities; get details from Kushiro's tourist information centre. At Tsurui there's excellent accommodation at the Hickory Wind ( 
0154/64-2956, 
www.aloha.or.jp/hickory ; Price: ¥15000-20000), which has five comfortable Western-style rooms in a rustic building overlooking the crane sanctuary. The meals are a work of art and the owner speaks English and is a mine of information on the area's nature destinations. Call ahead to be picked up at the airport or Tsurui bus station. On the east side to the park at Tōro, the cosy Kushiro Shitsugen Tõro Youth Hostel ( 0154/87-2510, www.youthhostel.or.jp ; dorms beds ¥3360) is also a good base, only moments from the train station.