Independent or tour? Best value way to see the eagles of japan? (1 Viewer)

[kittykat23uk]

Hi all,

At some point we'd like to gon to Japan to see and photograph the stellers sea eagles, cranes and snow monkeys. I know there are a few UK companies who do tours, but they all seem hellishly expensive. Is there a cheaper way of doing it for those of us who don't speak the lingo?

Thanks

Jo

 

[Tanager]

Jo,

Lisa and I went out to Japan last New Year to see the things you are planning to see. We did it completely independently with no problems and we don't speak Japanese, just the basic; Hello, Please and Thank You. The problem is that Japan is still quite expensive, although hotels and eating can be done cheaply getting around - flights and car hire are the expensive bits. If you are planning on flying internally get an airpass - ANA and Japan air do them, but with the Japan Air one you have to fly to japan with them as well. we used the ANA one, Lisa had two flights and I had four, (as I went down to Okinawa and Amami after she had gone back to the UK) I think the maximum you can get is six flights. Booking hire cars is easy just use: www2.tocoo.jp - all in english. driving in Japan is straight forward (even central tokyo) but can be slow going due to low speed limits and the japanese love affair with traffic lights. We rented five cars in total and all bar one (Amami - not needed as small island) had sat nav as standard and work off telephone numbers instead of postcodes - much better system. The only potential problem is that we only had one sat nav that was in english (Hokkiado), but even then we just got the rental guys to show us how to set it up once and then bobs your uncle. The Japanese are very friendly and helpful, even with our very limited japanese, don't let the language barrier stop you from going - its a superb country with great birds. Drop us a line if you have any questions.

Lisa wrote a blog while there; www.mytb.org/Parrot-fish

All the best,

Mark

 

[HokkaidoStu]

It's possible to do it yourself, PM me if you need any tips..................

 

[richard dunn]

I was part of an independant trip last year... fantastic, brilliant, best foriegn birding trip I have been on. I don't speak the lingo, struggle with the basics, but make the effort.
http://richarddunn.blogspot.com/2010/08/japan-february-18-march-7-2009.html
I would very much like to go again, one day!
As already mentioned, very very expensive!!!