I really liked our trip out to the Marsh Observatory. The place is easy to find with good parking. We didn’t venture into the pay to see observatory but took a long walk round the surrounding area. There is a board walk that is circular and takes you down into a valley and then onto a ridge where you can have Serengeti like views over the marshes. We decided however to visit the old Hokkaido archeological centre. You detour off to the right and then end up seeing these amazing thatched houses dig into the ground. Good views from there over Kushiro.
We then headed down to the old railway track at the bottom. This is a 1.8km flat walk along an old historic railway line. The ridge is above you to the left. We saw the most wildlife in any of our marsh trips out as this area is sheltered from the wind and a mixed woodland / marsh ecosystem. Saw several butterflies - green swallowtail, silver washed fritillaries, white admirals and a variety of warblers, tree creepers and nuthatches. You eventually turn left and come back up a flight of stairs to the circular walk. Took us a couple of hours with plenty of stops and ambling. Was probably about 4km and was easy and good fun. Great views at then end looking back. Spotted Sika on way home near centre. Good day out.
Kushiro was a stop over from Lake Alan to Obihiro on a rainy day. We did not have the luck to enjoy it weatherwise but it should post a very stunning elevated view of Kushiro. The museum was informative and we learnt better about a local architect who built the Kushiro fisherman wharf.
Not attractive location with only a building. Can skip this location for other attraction. can see only some flower during my visit. Flower will blossom in 2 week time. The view is okay and nothing else.
Other than the building, there is nothing to see here except a large flat area of land that is supposed to be the marsh...(and it did not look like a marsh to me!) The visitor center is OK, but the outside area offers little. There is a wooded walkway plank that meanders through the parkgrounds overlooking the "marsh" from afar. Other than the museum displays we saw very little of interest.
A complete waste of time, especially for birders. The observatory is more of an architectecural oddity, replete with ample photos on the observation deck of other notable Kushiro buildings. Nice, if second rate hobby architecture is your thing. Those looking for information or views regarding nature, however, may feel as I did — swindled.
After paying 1380¥ for the round trip bus and 480¥ admission, they charge an additional ¥200 to use the binos on the observation level. Really? I had my own, and certainly needed them to see the significant distance off to the marshes. Had there been cranes (no fault of the observatory, simply the wrong time of year), I would have been hard-pressed to to see anything, even with my 10x42s. As it was, all I could see were 5 crows about 400-500 meters out: alert the press.
The exhibit level is a pathetic managerie of sub-wiki-level exhibits. I wish someone had warned me it was such a waste of time!
The boardwalk (no entry fee) is nice, but certainly not as good as Harutori Park, conveniently located in town. The boardwalk yielded 6 species on the one hour 2.5 k loop, while Harutori Park the day before (similar weather) yielded 19 species in 2 hours on its 4+ km circumference.
Maybe kids are somehow mesmerized by the exhibits, but I doubt it. On top of the dry (largely Japanese-only) explanations and the what-can-we-scrape-together-to-fill-this-space exhibits, the exhibit level is kinda dark and creepy (it is quite possible they forgot to turn the lights for us, the only two visitors at that time?), so my guess is children lose interest in a wink.
In short, don’t bother.
