From Steller’s Sea Eagles to Sakura - Japan Tour Spring

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.