Trip to Kushiro (1)
September 16, 2024
I made a trip to Kushiro in Hokkaido for four days in the first week of September 2024.
In the second day, I visited Kushiro Marsh, which covers around 26,000 hectares (64,200 acres) and about 7,800 hectares of which is registered as a wetland under the Ramsar Convention.
When I saw the wet flatland at the mouth of the Kushiro River, I wondered if the Wakayama Plain had had a similar marsh in the past, especially late in the Jomon Period or not, and if cranes like red-crested cranes which currently live in Kushiro Marsh had inhabited the mouth of the Kinokawa River in the past or not.
Whatever the case may be, present Wakayama City area in the late Jomon Period, when sea level was higher by a few meters than today, must have been as beautiful as present Kushiro Marsh, and Jomon people must have lived in the close natural environment.