Kushiro is a large down in Hakkaido province known for it’s amazing fish markets and wildlife santuary to protect the red-crested cranes. In 1958 the red-crested crane population was down to near extinction at a mere 18 known red-crested cranes due to extensive overhunting for eating… now, as a protected species, and designation as a Special Natural Living Treasure, they number over 1000, so I guess the whole conservation thing is working for them. The city is now devoted to the cranes, which are revered as a symbol of longevity, luck and fidelity. The marshlands were quite extensive in the area, but apparently the township of Kushiro has been built largely on reclaimed marshalands before a mere 23 x 18 square kilometers was claimed for National Park to conserve the wildlife.
It is also well known for the beautiful crater lake, Lake Akan, which has a particularly weird and rare algae specific to this area, that grows in large perfectly spherical green balls. We had planned to go to the fish markets… only to find, they are closed on Sundays. 🙁 Bother. Instead, we ended up going to a marketplace called MOO. O.o
At the Moo markets, we saw a guy selling crabs at about Y1500 who then took to them with a pair of scissors to expertly pull them apart. I thought Qld’ers were good at getting into their seafood, but this guy made all of us look amateurs. Gotta buy myself some fancy crabbin’ scissors and learn how to do this – I love crab, but it’s always such a pain in the butt to get to the good meat.
The other thing we noticed in all the souvenir shops at the markets (and had quite a bit of a laugh over) was the mascot of Hokkaido… he’s a strangely reminiscent of a little green ninja turtle looking thing – but he’s ALWAYS depicted with an enormous bulge in his pants! Oh Japan, you so funny! Naturally we had to buy a couple of fridge magnets to bring home. 😛
Other fun stuff was the plethora of vending machines selling utter crap to anyone who wanted to throw their Yen into them, and this very cool game of skill machine… you know the ones where you operate the claw to go in and grab a prize? Well, this one had LIVE crabs in it, and you had to operate the claw to try and catch a live crab. A flimsy plastic was provided for you to put your catch in… and I’m not sure what you do with him after that? Take him home and boil him in a pot I assume? Fun for the whole family.
Tomorrow onto scenic cruising around the Shiretoko Peninsula, part way between Japan and Russsia.