The weather was better than on the preceding day so we headed off again south of Rausu to the Notsuke peninsula and spent much more time there this time, mainly out of the bus.

Here we are on the northern and western side of the peninsula, looking out to the Nemuro Strait or the Okhotsk Sea (depending on the angle of view).  On the edge of this sea is not rocks but “boulders of ice”, washed in on the waves.

When I was taking this image I was thinking in terms of a metaphor for Man’s intrusion into an unspoiled environment.   This is not actually wilderness, though, and probably has not been so for a long time.

On the other side of the peninsula, looking out over the frozen Notsuke Bay, I found elegant austere landscapes.  Over in the distance somewhere is where we were later to spend the night.

Occasionally there were sika deer visible from the road.  These were probably 100 metres away.

Here we are looking west towards the Hokkaido mountains.

These three images are all looking north towards the mountainous coast of Hokkaido.

Here is another herd of sika deer from the side of the road.  No stags, this time.

The buoys for the fishing nets made tempting photographic subjects in the snow.