CHILLY DAY WATCHING HOODED CRANES & A FEW FLAKES OF SNOW
29.01.2025
We were hoping to wake up to another white winter land, however there was no snow like it was predicted on the weather forecast. Nonetheless, Rob and I have decided to take a little road trip up to the mountains. Ever since we got to Shunan, we intended to see special cranes in Yashiro, only a 30 minute drive from my house. So today is the perfect day to kill two birds with one stone. Oh no!! Sorry, that is not the best saying for the situation. Sorry, also to the birds.
It was calming driving through the mountains and rural towns. Although there was no sign of snow falling, there were small build ups of snow on the sides of the road as we climbed higher up the mountains. When we arrived at a special viewing spot in Yashiro, the sign said there are currently 12 cranes living in this area.
In Yashiro, cranes and their homes have been protected since 1921 by law. In 1963, a special place called a crane observatory was built. Here, a warden keeps track of how many cranes there are, watches their behavior, and even gives them food. There is a dedicated parking space and numerous ‘keep out’ signage to protect the cranes.
Even with these efforts, the number of Hooded Cranes in Yashiro has gradually decreased. In the winter of 1940, there were 355 Hooded Cranes, and by 1991, there were 41 Hooded Cranes.
You might be curious about where these cranes come from. Hooded Cranes live in Siberia and travel to warmer places like China, Korea, and Japan during the winter. In Japan, most of these cranes gather in a place called Izumi, in Kagoshima Prefecture. What’s amazing is that the number of cranes in Izumi is actually growing, and right now, there are over 10,000 cranes there! That’s pretty impressive!
This is not the first time that Rob and I have visited this place, so as usual, we parked our car in the designated parking area and walked up to the viewing spot. Then, we suddenly heard the cranes calling. We had visited this place before, but we’d never heard their cries until now. It was easy for us to recognize the sound—it was very similar to the call of the Tancho cranes in Hokkaido on our visit early in 2024.
As we were listening to their calls and trying to spot the birds in the distance, three cranes suddenly decided to fly over us! Not joking! We were so excited and busy taking photos when an elderly man, who seemed like a local, walked past me and said, “It’s very lucky to see them flying overhead like that!”
It wasn’t long before another group of cranes flew past us, and this time, we were ready to both photograph and video them. We hope you enjoy the crane photos as much as we did. You will certainly see what I mean, as crane photos make up the bulk of today’s pictures.
We drove home quite ecstatic about the photos and video we had taken. We even enjoyed the light snow that was falling while we were there. Yashiro is a very small rural town and quite pretty. The people we met when we wandered around, were all friendly and up for a chat, which was really nice.
After we got home, I suggested we would go and buy a variety of food for dinner so Youko didn’t have to cook. She was quite happy with what we bought at Sun Live, like sashimi mackerel, a variety of sushi, croquettes, fried chicken and potato salad to go with the green salad I had prepared.
Rob even had time to give Youko a massage before we ate dinner and she was very happy about that. Yoshi arrived home from work and Rob told him not to worry, he would do the same for him after dinner, which he did.
As I wrap up today’s blog, Rob is reading his book, Youko has gone to have a bath, I am watching a bit of Television and Yoshi …… well after the massage he went to sleep on the heated rug. That was at 9.00pm. It’s now 11.15pm and he’s still asleep on the rug! I’m not sure whether I should wake him and tell him to go to bed or leave him there. I’ll let you know what I did in tomorrow’s blog.