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After we returned from photographing Steller’s eagles, the weather closed in and we spent most of the day in the hotel.  In the late afternoon, it cleared and we took off in the bus for a brief trip to the Notsuke Peninsula, south of Rausu.  Most of these images are taken from a moving bus.

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Here, as in the previous image, we are facing North to North-West, towards the open sea.  The Kuril Islands are on the horizon to the right.  This is the southern tip and they stretch away for a great distance out of sight.  The globes in the foreground are buoys for nets and there is a sea wall protecting the shore.

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I was on the left-hand side of the bus, so here we are facing in the opposite direction, into the sun, because the bus had turned around.  Between us and the distant coast of Japan is Notsuke Bay, a kind of small frozen sea.

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This time this bus had stopped so I was out on the ground for this image, probably using a tripod.  Not much evidence of current fishing activity at this time, but likely a different matter in the summer.

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Once again at the same stop, looking south-west in the other direction towards Notsuke Bay and the late afternoon sun.

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Maybe a youth hostel with the Manager’s quarters behind? … Or perhaps it’s just abandoned.

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There were a couple of large buildings boarded up, built in expectation of a tourist boom but the customers never arrived.