Shunkunitai is a narrow sandbar between the sea and Lake Furen, covered with dunes, marsh, grassland, and wind-bent Sakhalin spruce. It feels fragile because it is: the lagoon and sandbar are a Ramsar wetland, and the bird list is one of the strongest in eastern Hokkaido.
Come for cranes, eagles, ducks, shorebirds, and the odd feeling of walking through forest that seems to have drifted onto the edge of the ocean. The wild bird nature centre is the sensible first stop, especially in migration season or winter.