If social distancing were already a thing of the past in 2021, I would be enjoying a little downtime after my annual Hokkaido tour winter wonderland. Although, in previous years, I’ve been staying even longer on Japan’s north island in Eastern Hokkaido to photograph the Whooper Swans and the snow ballerinas the Red-crowned cranes while on a Hokkaido Shiretoko Nature Cruise. When it comes to photographing the Steller’s Sea Eagles and White-tailed eagles, I find them on the pack ice because I always have clients who wish to extend their expedition to capture more of those once in a lifetime photos.
And just as the Steller’s Sea Eagle returns to the Kamchatka Peninsula after wintering in Hokkaido, the northern Sakhalin Island, or other destinations in coastal Russia, I, too, make my way back to either the YukiGuni Niigata satellite office to lead a private Niigata tour, or I take the longer excursion down to my main office and studio home in Kanagawa to enjoy some private time. I usually spend about a week camping at the base of Mt. Fuji, and I always put aside a few days on my return to lead a nature Japan birding tour for Japan’s early cherry blossoms, the Kawazu Sakura that bloom from mid-February to mid-March, and the warbling white eye, also known as the Japanese white eye or Mejiro (Zosterops japonicus) that rush to slurp and eat the sweet nectar of the sakura flower just as they bloom, as do the Brown Eared Bul Bul and the common tree sparrow. As spring approaches, my eyes turn toward the season's main event, Japan’s bounteous species of cherry blossoms that bloom from late March in the South of Tokyo, and as they open to full bloom, I follow them to big-name places such as Nara, Kyushu, Niigata, Fukushima, Akita, Aomori and in these regions I know the very best off the beaten path locations with minimal numbers of tourists. This is an authentic Japan pilgrimage, and I plan to bid sakura season farewell until the next spring in style in Hokkaido where cherry blossoms open the first week of May. After which, I will go and enjoy whale watching on a Shiretoko Nature Cruise.
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