Japan 4.5: Traveling to Nemuro, a free crane family, and spending some time with deer

I was told by the eldest woman at the hotel that I may leave at 11, so it was a surprise to me that the young woman at the hotel, at 9:50 told me that checkout was at 10!  I quickly gathered things together and headed off.  Lake Mashu was practically on the way and was boasted as having some of the clearest water in the world.  It was pretty enough, but the water didn't look any different than elsewhere.  To be fair, the observation post was quite high.



It was about a three hour drive, including the detour, to get to my hotel in Nemuro, just a two minute drive from Shunkunitai, the wildlife preserve that I came to see.  Just before pulling into my hotel, I spotted three wild red crowned cranes walking in the marsh.  My hotel is a set of small prefab looking cottages.  The inside walls are plywood, but it has all of the normal amenities, including one that has been sorely missed, a refrigerator!  There is also a main building that acts as a dining room.

I unpacked and then went to explore shunkunitai.  At first I was afraid to move my car, because the family cat decided to sleep underneath it.  The owner simply told me to back up slowly.  The cat is still alive.



Tomorrow's post will show pictures the scenery, but much of the area has been damaged by weather, closing off some of the paths.  There are two main paths to follow.  As I came back from the first path, I spotted two deer walking through the nearby grass.  Although deer is common in many places, I never see them in Florida, so they are exciting to me.

The weather was cloudy, so the lighting was not very good.  I decided to keep going and turned towards the second path, which turned from the boardwalk I had been on thus far, to a ground path.  Here were small birds, constantly making ticking noises to each other and flying around.





After I was finished hanging out with the small birds, I spotted a family of deer on the marsh.  I stood and watched them for quite a while.  Eventually, three of them started moving toward where the path was.  I retraced my steps and they ended up about fifteen feet from me.  After the younger deer kept moving closer to me, and the parent was eyeing me, I decided to move on.



When I had arrived back at the hotel, I noticed a small group of people had pulled over their cars and were watching the crane family, which had returned.



I had dinner at the hotel.  A nearby couple asked me where in Japan I had visited.  I gave them a response that they had not anticipated by listing off every location that I have stayed in while visiting Japan.  Afterwards I quickly ran to get my camera, to take a picture of the sunset.