It was sunny when we awoke at six, so we were optimistic about our ocean trip. First, we joined Mark and most of the others for a 7 AM hours’ walk around a nearby park before returning for the hotel’s buffet breakfast. I had a bowl of broth with cabbage, Bok choi and other veggies that was excellent. We added several layers of clothes and took off for the harbor.
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| Bundled up against the cold |
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| Kelp-laden boat returning to harbor |
As we approached, we could see small boats pouring into the harbor past the tsunami walls. They were laden with kelp, and pulled alongside the pier, where a crane picked up huge bunches of kelp off the boats and deposited it in a truck. The boats are highly regulated; they have a season of only a few months for harvesting and each day must return to the harbor by 11 AM.
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| Crane lifting the kelp onto a truck |
We met our
naturalist guide, a very friendly man, who boarded our boat, as we took off,
this time into the Pacific Ocean. Our
boat was considerably smaller than our previous ones, but only our group was on
board so the captain could concentrate on what we wanted to see rather than what
general tourists are interested in.
I stood in the bow for the 2.5-hour trip as there were only a couple of seats available, but it was sunny, and the spray didn’t reach us. We saw Rhinoceros Auklets, a seabird with an orange bill with a “horn” on it that ranges from California to Hokkaido, so not a new bird for us, but nice to see.
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| Rhinoceros Auklet |
Then Bob picked up the Spectacled Guillemot, his 40th new bird of the trip! The captain steered us near some rocky island where we could just see a nest of the Red-faced Cormorants and catch a flash of bright red on their faces.
We returned to the harbor and drove to a 7-11 for lunch, stopping a little way on to see part of the process of intensive labor required to treat the kelp. It is unwound from the heap of kelp dumped into a truck from a kelp boat, and stretched out on a bed of gravel, dried, cleaned and dried some more. It is a very valuable product in Japanese cuisine and apparently worth all the effort.
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| Birding on a rocking boat |
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| Kelp stretched out on a gravel bed for drying |
We ate on the run, stopping several times along the way by streams and fields, to bird. Bob picked up the Tundra Bean Goose, which is not supposed to be here this time of year.
It was getting late and we were all tired; we returned to the hotel, compiled the bird list. Bob decided he didn’t want another fish meal at the restaurant we went to last night and stayed in the hotel. The rest of us then walked over to our excellent restaurant for a non-fish dinner that Mark and Mayumi specially ordered! Too bad Bob missed it!
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| Lots of dishes! |
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