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 Introduction
I had booked my trip to Sweden for some bird watching and I will watch the Crane Dance, Capercaillie Lek and the Black Grouse Lek. I will leave home on the 14th of April. So I have a few days to kill between the 1st of April until the departure. I was suffering from boredom and I was looking around on the internet. I ended up looking for bird watching in Japan. I found a few web pages about bird watching in Japan and it looked interesting. I surfed to BirdingPal´s web page and I found a birding guide. He sent me an itinerary and it was a very confusing and I didn´t understood much of it. To see the itinerary click HERE. Took me quite a while to understand all the information and I was not happy. But when I understood his itinerary it was excellent. My Guide have put down a lot of job in the itinerary. Should have been easy to do the trip all by myself with his excellent itinerary. All train stations and train stations marked and step by step instructions. He had left one day FREE OF ACTIVITIES and I wondered if he was busy during this day. But we agreed to spend the night on Miyake Island. He booked a night at Pension Oshidori on Miyake Island. And this was good as Bayside Hotel Azur Takeshiba Hamamatsucho was fully booked this night. So I would have had to check-out anyway. My Guide
I found my Guide at BirdingPal and I sent him an e-mail. Quick reply and I got a somewhat confusing itinerary. But as soon as we had sorted out this it was good service from the “GO” Just to visit his web page is amazing. You can find everything you will ever need at Japan-Birding Checklists, maps and all the information you can ever wish for, impressive web page about bird watching in Japan. Japan-Birding´s owner is a very dedicated Guide and he have been bird watching for 24 years so he know his way around birds. The only thing I could wish for is a little better English. But it was no problem and I enjoyed the bird watching even when I realized that we were talking about different subjects at times. But I learned about all the birds and I will use Japan-Birding when I come back to Japan. And I´m happy to recommend Japan-Birding and it is 4 out of 5 stars. If the English would have been better it would have been 5 out of 5 stars. He made a trip report on his web page and it is available HERE  Full size PDF can be found HERE
References/Resources
I must mention my Guide´s web page: Japan-Birding Checklists, maps and all the information you can ever wish for, impressive web page about bird watching in Japan. BirdingPal I found my Guide at BirdingPal ebird - Find birding hotspots with bird checklists from all over the world Avibase - is an extensive database information system about all birds of the world, containing over 25 million records about 10,000 species and 22,000 subspecies of birds, including distribution information for 12,000 regions, taxonomy, synonyms in several languages Cloudbirders - Read birding trip reports from all over the world Japan Nature Guides Providing a lot of information about bird watching in Japan Nemesis Bird Blog about bird watching in Tokyo Fatbirder - linking birders worldwide... Wildlife Travellers see our sister site: WAND Wild Bird Society of Japan livejapan.com The One Stop Guide Service for visitors to Japan with LIVE information   And the web page you cannot live without. I have been around the world looking for birds. I usually have a Guide, but sometimes it is not possible to find a Guide. So, well, I have lost count on how many times I have had help to ID birds at BirdForum. Joining this forum have been very very good. www.birdforum.net ClimaTemps.com is the place to learn about the worlds climates with more than 4000 locations documented. Each aspect of the climate is represented using colour enhanced tables and professional graphs so that data can easily be compared by switching between locations in different tabs in your browser. Equipment
Canon 5D Mk. III Canon EF 28-300/3,5-5,6 L IS USM Canon EF 70-200/2,8L IS II USM Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens Canon Speedlite 600EXII-RT flash Canon PowerShot G7X Mark II Panasonic HC-W585 video camera Sound recorder ZOOM H5 Handy Recorder Flights
Booked on Thai International´s web page. I choose Thai as I had “miles” that would expire. Otherwise I would have chosen ANA or Singapore Airlines   Land transportation
• AOT Limousine between my home and Bangkok International Airport
• Airport Shuttle Bus from Narita International to the hotel in Tokyo.
• Train around the Tokyo area.  New Transit Yurikamome (新交通ゆりかもめ Shinkōtsū Yurikamome), formally the Tokyo Waterfront New Transit Waterfront Line (東京臨海新交通臨海線 Tōkyō Rinkai Shinkōtsū Rinkai-sen), is an automated guideway transit service operated by Yurikamome, Inc., connecting Shimbashi to Toyosu, via the artificial island of Odaiba in Tokyo, Japan, a market in which it competes with the Rinkai Line. The line is named after the Black-headed Gull (yurikamome in Japanese), a common denizen of Tokyo Bay and the official prefectural bird.  Yurikamome Line - My hotel is at station #3 Takeshiba Station
I will board the Yurikamome Line at station #3 Takeshiba Station and I will meet my Guide at one of the stations along the line and from there we will go to the different sites together. More about the trains in the DAY BY DAY reports in the links below. I told my Guide that I could rent a car as this would be more comfortable and we could save time. But my Guide have a car and the reason for us to take the train is, well, to save time. We will lose valuable birding time crossing the Tokyo area in a car. • Ferry to Miyake Island 
We will go on the Tokia Kisen Co. Ltd. ferry and their web page is very good and easy to find information. Click HERE to visit the web page  We will take the ferry from the Takeshiba Passenger Ship Terminal. The terminal is located just next to my hotel. Takeshiba Passenger Ship Terminal information HERE • From Bayside Hotel Azur Takeshiba Hamamatsucho to Haneda Airport  Tokyo Monorail (東京モノレール Tōkyō Monorēru), officially the Tokyo Monorail Haneda Airport Line (東京モノレール羽田空港線 Tōkyō Monorēru Haneda Kūkō sen), is a monorail system connecting Haneda Airport in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, to Monorail Hamamatsuchō Station in Minato, Tokyo. The trains operate along an elevated line that follows the coast of Tokyo Bay. Airport access Passengers using the monorail to travel to the airport can take advantage of check-in facilities at Hamamatsuchō. Japan's domestic airlines (JAL, ANA, Skymark Airlines, and Air Do) have check-in counters and ticket machines right at the station. Tokyo Monorail tickets can also be purchased on the lower level of Kansai International Airport in Osaka, Itami Airport (also in Osaka), as well as Naha Airport in Okinawa and departure gate area at Hiroshima Airport. An alternative to the monorail is the Keikyu Airport Line between the airport and Shinagawa Station. Both railways compete with bus services.  I will board at station #1 and I will gett off at station #10
Accommodations
Bayside Hotel Azur Takeshiba Hamamatsucho: 4 April to 6 April 2019 Pension Oshidori, Miyake Island: 7 April to 8 April 2019 Bayside Hotel Azur Takeshiba Hamamatsucho: 8 April to 11 April 2019 My Guide booked the hotel on Miyake Island. I booked Bayside Hotel Azur Takeshiba Hamamatsucho on AGODA even though I never use the hotel booking sites anymore. Better to book directly on the hotel´s web pages. I have booked hotels around the world, but this hotel´s web page was in Japanese so I swapped to AGODA.
Weather / climate
I have been to Tokyo before. And I have been there during the month of April. So I know pretty much what to expect of the month April. I received an e-mail from my Guide a few day sbefore I left: The weather during your trip seems fine but slightly windy according to the latest weather as shown below. Apr. 05 in Sanbanze, Kasai: Sunny, 6-19 degrees Celsius, 2-12 m/s west-south wind Apr. 06 in Miyagase: Sunny, 5-15 degrees Celsius, 1-4 m/s north wind Apr. 07 in Miyake Is.: Sunny, 13-19 degrees Celsius, 1-6 m/s west-south wind Apr. 08 in Miyake Is.: Sunny, 15-20 degrees Celsius, 8-11 m/s west-south wind Apr. 09 in Akigase: Sunny, 10-16 degrees Celsius, 3-4 m/s north wind Apr. 10 in Takao: Sunny, 2-11 degrees Celsius, 2-3 m/s north wind Please do not forget to take gloves and a wind breaker Below were the actual weather conditions in Tokyo for April 2018 to help give you an idea of how the weather will be during your trip to Japan. Weather in Tokyo during the first week in April  From livejapan.com
Places to visit
Sanbanze Seaside Park
- Reclaimed land and lotus fields
- 0.5 day - migrating/wintering freshwater shorebirds, waterfowls and raptors. - Best season: Aug. to March From Japan-Birding web page  Sanbanze Seaside Park
A nice place and you can experience different habitat during your visit. Waders on the mudflats. Walk on the road (closed for traffic) between the park and the beach. There are trees with birds and at the west side of the beach there are a huge area with reeds between the beach and the walk/ bike path. Yatsu Tidal Flat
- The biggest tidal flat left in the depth of the Tokyo Bay.
- 0.5 day - shorebirds. - Best season: Aug. to Oct, Mar. to May From Japan-Birding web page More info from RAMSA by clicking HERE  Yatsu Tidal Flat - Click HERE for bigger picture
We park at the X and there was many birds at the mudflats next to the walk path along the water front. There is a visitor centre and bird hide overlooking a pond and a 200 m long walk through a small forest. You can walk along the tidal flats but there is so much reeds growing so you won´t see many birds. Well, worth a visit. We spotted a Great Knot from where we had parked the car when we had our picnic lunch.
Kasai-Rinkai Park
- Park with a bird sanctuary with salty and fresh water ponds and forest and beach.
- 0.5 day - migrating or wintering shorebirds, water birds and birds in the forest or grass field. - Best season: Sep. to May From Japan-Birding web page  Map
Map from picsbud.com
Miyagase Lake, Hayatogawa Forest Road
- Forest road along Lake Miyagase
- 1 day - birds in hill and lake. - Best season: Dec. to Jun. From Japan-Birding web page As we´re in the middle of nowhere the only option to come here is by car. It is about 90 minutes from Tokyo to get here.  Location of Miyagase Lake Park
 We park at the bridge that is blocked for traffic
There was several photographers on the bridge taking pictures of the Black Kites flying in the area. From the bridge there is a forest road (Closed for traffic) along the Hayato River and after 1,5 kilometres there is another bridge across the mouth of the Kanazawa River in to Miyagase Lake. Walking on the mountain side and you have the tree tops and the river on one side and mountain forest on the other side. The river is pretty far below you when walking on the path.
Coming to the bridge crossing the Hayato River. You need to find a place to park the car along the very narrow road. The bridge and the entrance to the Hayatogawa Forest Road is closed for traffic, walking only. There was several photographers on the bridge over the Hayato River taking pictures of the Black Kites flying in the area. From the bridge there is a forest road, Hayatogawa Forest Road (Closed for traffic) along the Hayato River and after 1,5 kilometres there is another bridge across the mouth of the Kanazawa River in to Miyagase Lake. Walking on the mountain side and you have the tree tops and the river on one side and mountain forest on the other side. The river is pretty far below you when walking on the path. Hayatogawa Forest Road is pretty flat so not many hills when walking on the mountain side and it is one of my favourite bird watching nature. On the river side the tree tops are in eye level and it is easy to see the birds. Shindenjuku rice paddies
- Bank and basin at middle reach of the river - 0.5 day - wintering waterfowl and birds in grass field. - Best season: Dec. to April From Japan-Birding web page Shindenjuku rice paddies is an area of small rice paddys and patches of arable land where people from the city comes to grow vegetables etc. Leave the bustling city life to spend the weekend growing your own vegetables. This area is along the river so there is both river, meadow and farmland habitate and birds to come with them. It is an area known for the endemic Japanese Green Pheasant / キジ (キタキジ） Driving along very narrow dirt paths between the patches keeping an eye out for the Japanese Green Pheasant / キジ (キタキジ） and of course, the Japanese Skylark / ヒバリ Miyake Island (Miake-Jima)
- Remote island access by boat or airplane
- 1 day plus 1 night boat stay (*depending on the ship schedule) - see-birds on the boat or peculiar species in this island. - Best season: April to June From Japan-Birding web page
Many people take the evening ferry from Tokyo and arrive 5 o´clock in the morning. Then they do bird watching and return to Tokyo with the ferry in the afternoon. I decided to stay one night on the Miyake Island More information about Miyake Island at Wild Bird Society of Japan web page   Miyake Island - Tairoike Pond and Miyake Nature Center
Park your car at Miyake Nature Center and check the walk path for Izu Trushes before walking up to the Miyake Nature Center. They are there in the morning. You can walk on a dirt path from Miyake Nature Center to the Tairoike Pond. But you can also drive your car on a dust road to the north platform. Tairoike Pond and Miyake Nature Center is a fantastic place for bird watching. A very beautiful area to walk around enjoying the sights and bird song. And I really like that you can take your car. Driving along with the side door open and you have your own hide with you.  Miyake Island - Airport
There are water birds along the dramatic lava rock coast line. Great Egrets and one Intermediate Egret was looking for food. Many Cormorants on the rocks. It was a little too windy to enjoy the bird watching fully. Sea gulls was sitting on the lava rocks and the area is well worth a visit.  Miyakejima - Yakushido Temple
This site is located in the northwest of the island. This is an important site where you can easily see a subspecies of Winter Wren endemic to the Izushoto islands. As soon as you enter the temple grounds, you will see Izu Thrush, Izu Leaf-warbler, subspecies of Varied Tit and Japanese White-eye. In the dense forest, where the huge SUDAJII covers the path, you can often see subspecies of Winter Wren and that of Japanese Robin. A small temple is at the end of the path, a few hundreds meters away. A lot of Japanese Wood Pigeons occur here. From https://www.wbsj.org/en/miyake/birds.html#map Miyakejima--Izu Cape
This site is located in the northwest of the island. The grass area near the white lighthouse is one of the world’s most important and rarest habitats for Pleske’s Grasshopper-warbler. The best birdwatching season is from May to July. From https://www.wbsj.org/en/miyake/birds.html#yakushi_do Akigase Park / Sakuraso Park, Saitama
- Park along Arakawa River
- 0.5 day - Wintering or migrating birds. - Best season: Sep. to May From Japan-Birding web page
You reach, almost all the way to the park with the train. The last 10 to 15 minutes have to be spent in a taxi. 5:36 Takeshiba Station (Yurikamome Line) Train to Shinbashi 3 min. 5:48 Shinbashi Station (JR Keihin-Tohoku/Negishi Line for Omiya) *Platform No.6 Train to Omiya 30 min. 6:21 Akabane Station (Saikyo Line for Omiya) Train to Naka-Urawa 16 min. 6:37 Naka-Urawa Station Drive for Akigase Park 15 min. 4km Akigase Park / Sakuraso Park is two parks. There are several parks along the Arakawa River and it can be hard to notice when walking across the borders. Akigase Park / Sakuraso Park is perfect for birding as there are many different habitat. Public Park, Forest, Rice Paddies and River habitat so you can see all kinds of birds. Driving along very narrow dirt paths between the patches keeping an eye out for the Japanese Green Pheasant / キジ (キタキジ） and of course, the Japanese Skylark / ヒバリ And you can drive your car along small roads, very good as it was raining when I was there so I used the car as a moving bird hide. So it is a recommended birding site. The only trouble you can run in to is transportation between the park and the railway station. OK, taxi from the train station is easy enough, but to get back can be a little harder.  Get the phone number to the taxi driver that dropped you in the park, but make sure the driver understand English. And if you plan to spend a full day you need to bring picnic lunch as I could not see any restaurants or vending machines in the area. Mount Takao (Takao-San)
- Trails in the mountain (599m) with sacred forests of Takao-San Yakuou-in Temple.
- 1 day - birds in hill. - Best season: Dec. to June From Japan-Birding web page And the train from Tokyo goes all the way to the cable car station at Mount Takao. Cheange train one time after leaving Shinjuku Station. 5:43 Takeshiba Station (Yurikamome Line) Train to Shinbashi 3 min. 5:56 Shinbashi Station (JR Yamanote Line Soto-mawar) *Platform No.4 Train to Shinjuku 28 min. 6:41 Shinjuku Station (Keio Line for Keio-Hachioji) *Platform No.3 Train to Kitano 43 min. 7:25 Kitano Station (Keio Line for Takaosankuchi) *Platform No.1 Transfer train to Takaosanguchi 13 min. 7:38 Takaosanguchi Station
Mount Takao is located only about 50 minutes away from Shinjuku by train, close enough for a day trip of leisurely hiking on the mountain. The Japanese have regarded it as a holy mountain since the Edo period. The mountain today is well loved as a splendid nature destination close to the city. The summit of Mt. Takao is 599 meters above sea level. People regard the mountain as an "Eden” of wildlife and natural vegetation because it sits inside the natural boundary between Japan's subtropical and temperate forests. Trees and plants of both woodland types grow in abundance on the mountain slopes. More information at KEIO´s web page Reaching the top and there are some restaurants and a grand view of Mount Fuji. At Mount Takao there are six main and four additional hiking tracks, easy to moderate routes, none of which take more than two hours • Trail/Route 1—the Omotesando Trail—which is mostly paved and passes all of the major sightseeing spots. It’s the easiest option in terms of effort—both physical and in the planning sense. It can get busy though, so be prepared for a less-than-silent mountain experience. This route is actually the longest, at 3km, and is easy-to-medium in terms of difficulty. • Trail 2—Kasumidai Loop: This is the easiest and shortest trail, only a 0.9 km stroll through forests. • Trail 3—Katsura Woods Trail: A medium trail with a focus on nature, 2.4 km of streams, forests and views. • Trail 4—Suspension Bridge Trail: A 1.5 km medium route through forests and crossing the Miyamabashi Bridge. • Trail 5—Peak Loop Trail: An easy route of 0.9 km which is relaxing and allows hikers to admire the flowers. • Trail 6—Biwa Waterfall Trail: The second longest at 3.3 km, and the most challenging. This is known as “the trail of water”. You can pass a waterfall—site of ascetic training—and enjoy the cool forest air. • Inariyama Trail: A 3.2 km challenging trail via Mount Inari, this is known as the every-season trail as it always has flowers or leaves to admire. • Iroha no Mori Trail: A medium but at times steep 1.5 km trail, which has trees whose initials form the 48-character ancient Japanese alphabet: the iroha. • Jyataki Waterfall Trail: A medium 1.5 km trail which follows the water, this one is quiet and peaceful. • Ura-Takao Trail: The longest at 4.7 km, but an easy stroll, this takes you through plum groves with over 10,000 trees. It does run along a road though, so be wary of fast cars.  Takao 599 Museum have a good page with the different trails Here  From www.travel-around-japan.com
Bird checklist
I never use any bird lists, but since I try to make it in to Cloudbirders. A very helpful site when planning your birding trips. But they ask for a bird checklist, and if I use their service, of course I want to contribute as well. My two first bird watching trip reports was rejected by Cloudbirders. So I started to take ideas from the reports I found on Cloudbirders. So I have started to use bird lists, eBird generate one for me and I can post it on Cloudbirders. I will post my birds on eBird and on my different “BIRDS THAT I HAVE OBSERVED” pages. Check lists can come in handy to find out the local name of the bird etc. And Avibase have a list with pictures and sounds, excellent! So I will post bird checklists here and if my Guides provide me with checklists I will also post them here.  My Guide have sent me two checklist and I hope to see many of the birds on the list. Bird check lists as pdf files below if you want  to check them out:
Tokyo Area bird checklist - April Miyake Island bird checklist - April  Tokyo Area bird checklist from Avibase, click HERE Miyake Island bird checklist from Avibase, click HERE Avibase is providing you with bird checklists from all over the world. And I´m impressed by their web page. Select country and area and you get the bird checklist. Like the PDF files I got from Avibase on the links above. You also get the checklist with pictures and sounds. The best part is that you get the local names of the birds and the online checklist gives the names in English plus the language you have selected. But it seems like the PDF cannot handle some alphabet. For example the Japanese language so it is blank in the PDF checklist. But it worked excellent with Swedish. But you get them in the local language on the online version. As I have started ti use eBird on my phone I have made bird checklists during my bird watching, see below:
My Guide made a bird lest for me when we were ready with the tour. I only wish I had got good pictures of all the birds we have seen. But you jus tneed to click HERE for Japan-birding´s birding report. Bird list
I only listed birds I have got on picture before I started with eBird in November 2019. Now I record all the birds that I can identify. Before that see the DAY TO DAY reports and my lists of observed birds in different countries. And you can visit my list of “Birds I have seen in Japan” My eBird checklists can be found HERE Itinerary
Click on the links below for daily bird watching results: Wednesday 4 April 2019: Flying to Tokyo Thursday 5th April 2019: Birding at Sanbanze Seaside Park, Yatsu Tidal Flat and Kasai-rinkai Park Friday 6th April 2019: Birding at Miyagase Lake and Shindenjuku rice paddies. Ferry to Miyake Island in the evening Sunday 7th April 2019: Birding on Miyake Island Monday 8th April 2019: Birding on Miyake Island in the morning, and birding on the ferry to Tokyo in the afternoon Tuesday 9th April 2019: Birding at Mount Takao Wednesday 10th April 2019: Birding at Akigase Park / Sakuraso Park, Saitama Thursday 11th April 2019: Flying back home to Bangkok 
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To www.aladdin.st since December 2005
Visitors from different countries since 26th of September 2011
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