Independant Travel (1 Viewer)

[Steve Arlow]

I am batting a few ideas around for a trip in 2011, in advance so I can do some decent planning, and just wanted to know how easy it is for independant travel and birding, i.e. without going on an organised tour.

Although Japan doesn't offer a huge number of new birds to me there are some that are clearly an attraction, the eagles and cranes on Hokkaido are a given but I'm also keen on getting the winter gulls and a trip out for albatrosses.

Is travel/driving easy enough for a non Japanese speaking visitor and making bookings.

any help or suggestions would be very much welcomed

many thanks in advance

 

[Strandman]

I am batting a few ideas around for a trip in 2011, in advance so I can do some decent planning, and just wanted to know how easy it is for independant travel and birding, i.e. without going on an organised tour.

Although Japan doesn't offer a huge number of new birds to me there are some that are clearly an attraction, the eagles and cranes on Hokkaido are a given but I'm also keen on getting the winter gulls and a trip out for albatrosses.

Is travel/driving easy enough for a non Japanese speaking visitor and making bookings.

any help or suggestions would be very much welcomed

many thanks in advance

Hopefully you have caught up with some useful trip
reports (PM me if not, or browse down in this sub-forum for links)

some short answers in the meantime

- travel/driving is easy enough

- but making bookings can be very difficult for a non Japanese speaking visitor: often you find that even when you are dealing with someone who speaks reasonable English, he/she is too shy to use it and emails tend to be left unresponded to

- the trip out for albatrosses that you refer to is very hard to procure, if by that you mean a dedicated pelagic like the one tacked on to the end of Birdquests biannual trip, but of course the ferries are straightforward enough and once aboard it is a matter of luck and perseverance (S t Albatross is seen more often from the southern ferries)