My husband and I are traveling to Japan over Christmas/New Years. We are wildlife photography enthusiasts and so far our itinerary includes a visit to see the snow monkeys in Jigokudani, We would also love to see some of the beautiful cranes (I believe this is in Kushiro?) but when I look at flights from Tokyo to Kushiro the fare is almost $1000 US per person round trip. This seems a bit expensive for a flight that is less than 2 hours - is there a more economical way to get there? For photographing cranes, what locations do you all recommend?

Thanks in advance for the help !

Are you travelling on Japan Airlines or American? I flew on AA last June and as a result had the opportunity to buy "yokoso" fares on JAL that allowed me to travel for $100 US per internal flight.

The drive from Lake Akan to Kushiro is through farming area and we spotted about ten couples of cranes off the side of the road just yesterday. There is a crane park just outside of Kushiro where they have nesting pairs .
You can also get cheap flights if you fly Star Alliance planes to and from Japan . Price is 11000 yen per flight. Sorry for short answer but am tapping this out on my iPhone with no computer here in a ryokan on Lake Akan. Check for my trip report when I return

Aloha!

Thanks for the replies - combining with my international ticket was a great idea but I called JAL and they have blacked out basically the entire holiday period (December 22nd through January 5th). Harumph.

Yes you will be hard pressed to get a discount ticket during the very busy season. Blackout periods are from 12/24 thru 1/4 on most airlines. You might try Air Do which is Hokkaido's flag airlines for discounted flights when booked in advance but again its the time you are traveling that makes the difference.

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2364.html

About seeing the cranes.....there is a crane park just outside of Kushiro that has nesting pairs. Do not go to the crane observatory as they charge you 400 yen pere person admission but have no cranes to be seen except the stuffed ones in their showcase. Basically a rip off. They are beautiful to see though in the wild and never knew they were so huge and graceful in flight......amazing sight. Good luck with your flights

Aloha!

Aloha!

Both ANA and JAL fly to Kushiro. If you have frequent flyer miles on a Star Alliance or One World carrier then you can get an award to take that trip.

One time, I flew to Tokyo as a stopover enroute to Bali on an FF award. Got another award and flew Tokyo - Sapporo and Sapporo - Hiroshima, then took the train back to Tokyo, making a few stops along the way. No backtracking.

I think a domestic Japan award with United miles would cost 20,000 miles.

Thanks all for the detailed replies. After lots of calls with the airlines it seems I can not get a ff ticket until 60 days prior so I'll have to wait a few more weeks. Worth it to try to save $1000 though !

Regarding the crane park outside of Kushiro, is that
Shitsungen National Park
Akan International Crane Center
Tsurui /Itoh Japanese Crane Sanctuary
Tsurumidai Plain

Also - should we rent a car ?

Going north on hwy 240 from Kushiro you pass the Japanese Crane Observation Center on the right(this is the place with the stuffed cranes) just about 1 mile or two after that you will see a sign that says crane park on the left. That is where we saw the nesting cranes. There are other places but I have not been there. I don't know if renting a car is a good idea or not at that time of year because of the weather in Hokkaido but would be very easy to do in Kushiro when you get there. A good place to rent a car from is toocoo car rentals. Maybe you could ask them what road conditions are like at that time of year. Very easy driving in October though. We rented a car from the Asahikawa JR station at the JR car rental there where they will give you a steep discount if you have any type of Hokkaido rail pass. You might check with JR rentals also as I think the discount is good thru the end of the year. Sorry I don't have that link as we are still on the road in Sapporo. If you do rent a car get one with GPS preferably English GPS which is new this year and was very valuable to us this trip. The rentalagent at Asahikawa said they just got the English GPS for their vehicles last month.

http://www2.tocoo.jp/?file=rentcar_inbound/main

btw Kushiro is a pretty big town.

Aloha!

here is the jr link

http://www2.jrhokkaido.co.jp/global/.../4days_03.html

Seems they do rent during the winter months.....good luck!

Thanks to the helpful suggestions of everyone here (and patience) I was finally able to get ff tickets to Kushiro. We have basically three full days so now I have to do some serious planning.

Any suggestions on where to stay? I tried tripadvisor but most of the reviews are in Japanese...

We did not stay in Kushiro last month as we stayed at Lake Akan but I did drive through it a couple of times and if it were me I would want to be in the area downtown by the JR station and the main shopping dori. The ANA looked well located as did the Prince and Tokyu Inn. There are several other pretty big hotels in that area whose names elude me at the moment or were in Japanese but try the japanicam.com site or the rakuten site for listings in Kushiro. Good luck

http://www.japanican.com/hotels/list.aspx?ar=010701

Aloha!