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East Asia · Japan
Snow country, drift ice, and the cranes of Kushiro
Ten days in the coldest fortnight of the Japanese year, when the Sea of Okhotsk freezes and the ice arrives on the Shiretoko coast. We follow the island east for the red-crowned cranes at dawn, then north for the sea eagles, and finish in the snow country of Daisetsuzan.
Sapporo
Arrive into New Chitose and transfer to the city. A briefing on the cold — what to wear, what to carry, how camera batteries behave at −20°C — and then dinner in the Susukino lanes.
Tsurui
A morning on the limited express through snowbound farmland, then into the Kushiro marsh. We reach the crane village by mid-afternoon and go straight out for the last hour of light.
Setsuri river
Out before six to the Otowa bridge, where the cranes roost standing in the river and the mist freezes as it rises off the water. The afternoon is at the feeding grounds, where the pairs display.
Kushiro Shitsugen
A slower day. A walk on boardwalks above the frozen wetland, an hour at the observatory, and a long soak somewhere with a view before the drive north begins tomorrow.
Rausu
Up the eastern coast to the Shiretoko peninsula, a UNESCO site and as close to wilderness as Japan keeps. The harbour is full of ice by January; the eagles come in for the fishing boats.
Sea of Okhotsk
A small boat out before dawn into the pack ice, with Steller's sea eagles and white-tailed eagles overhead for two straight hours. Back for a late breakfast; the afternoon is free.
Shiretoko
Across the peninsula to the Five Lakes, frozen and silent, with sika deer in the birch and — if the tracks are fresh — evidence of the foxes that own the place in winter.
Sounkyo
West to Daisetsuzan, the roof of Hokkaido, and a ryokan at the foot of it. An afternoon walk in the frost-covered forest, an outdoor bath as it gets dark, kaiseki after.
Biei
The rolling snow farms of Biei — a landscape that looks drawn rather than grown — then the road west. Final dinner in Sapporo, with the group's photographs on the table.
New Chitose Airport (CTS)
Transfers to New Chitose through the morning. Flights after 11:00 are comfortable; anything earlier is not, and we will say so when you book.
Reservations for Meridian Expeditions — reservations@meridianexpeditions.example · +1 (604) 555-0142. Bookings taken here are written back to the operator’s reservations platform; PEAK 15 remains the system of record.