Tour organizers for cruise ship passengers

We are wondering if there are any independent tour organizers at Kushiro that we can join to take us to the Kushiro craen observation points. We only have a full day and need to be back at the ship at 4:00 p.m. I would appreciate any help.

Hi, Charlotte

I'm a person living in Hokkaido.

Click the site below to see if there are any tours available to you in mid-winter:

http://h-takarajima.com/search&area1_id=41&area2_id=&genre1_id=&genre2...

When will you visit Kushiro? Because wild cranes come to Kushiro in November,
and leave Kushiro around the end of February, you need to visit Kushiro in mid-winter.

This means that if you visit Kushiro in summer or autumn, you can not watch wild cranes at any observation points.

If you definitely want to watch cranes anywhere (not wild cranes, but kept in a small park),
visit a natural park near Kushiro Airport. This park is called
Kushiro-shi Tancho Shizen Koen (Kushiro Crane Natural Park):

YouTube videos (18 cranes are now raised in this park):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKPr13Enq4E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2kwLxA8QN8
Admission fee: 460 yen (over 15 years old) / 360 yen (under 15 years old)

Without participating any special tours, you can access to this park very easily from the airport only by taxi because the park is located only 1,000 meters north of the airport (When you move along a way to the park by taxi, the distance between the airport and the park will be about 4,500 meters).

Anyway, if you don't have enough time, it is efficient to watch cranes (not wild cranes) at a nearby natural park.

Thank you very much for your reply to my question. It will really help us in planning our trip in that area. We are arriving in Kushiro on October 1st, 2012 and we'll be there from 8:00 a.m to 5:00 p.m. only. We'll be in Hakodate the next day. Since you mentioned that the cranes will not be there yet as it is too early, we may change plans and instead look for some other tour options. Another tour option I'm looking at is the visit to Ainu village.