Rausu/Yoroushi: 26th Feb 2015

Again, our alarm clock did not fail us and we did not disappoint ourselves. We woke up punctually at 4am, got ready by 430am and set off to board our boat to catch the intense action of the Steller's sea eagles!

Today, the sunrise was really beautiful. You could see the sun slowly approaching upwards, with very nice shades of gold, yellow and orange creating beautiful light in the sky. The eagles were already on standby, awaiting for food. I found a good seat this time and I desperately needed it. Reason being on the previous day, I was on my knees and in the end, had much bruises on them that I could not bend my legs well :( So a seat was much needed this morning!

Some tango among the eagles

Crow on the left, Steller's sea eagle on the right.

No crow/eagle is going to catch its fish!

Trying to perfect its landing

Close-up photo of the Steller's sea eagle

3 hours of intense shooting and I saw much action that day. We were anticipating what we saw yesterday. We were all trying to get better shots than the previous day haha. In fact, today I ditched my tripod in the car as it was so tough juggling both the tripod and myself on balance on the boat.

All of us felt pretty satisfied and we made our way back to hotel for our breakfast. So looking forward to a hot bowl of miso soup at that instant!!

After breakfast, we packed our stuff, rested a while, before meeting Takashi-san to drive to Yoroshii. I went to say farewell to Kuma-san, the dog in the hotel. He was just too adorable and I gotta take a last look of him :)

We took a brief stop at a museum which showcased the various wildlife that one can catch at Shiretoko Peninsula. A pity we didn't manage to see the seals. We thought we saw one..but end up it was a Stellar's sea eagle :( Talking about daydreaming -_-

The beautiful landscape outside the museum

We set off for Yoroushi and along the way, we spotted so many deers! Beware of the photos below..nothing but the deers!

They spotted us and ran away! 

Luckily, we spotted more deer as we drove towards Yoroushi. Some battle happening real-time!

    

Taking huge heaps of fresh air

Father and child : Connection

Then, we drove past along the coastline and saw few wandering deers, looking through for some food in the midst of snow and debris.

          

I love animal photography. One of the reasons is that I learn the animal instinct from them. Many times, man will think that he is the smartest living being on earth. But animals do have their intelligence as well. Just like how they signal to each other whether there are vehicles coming along their way and making sure it is safe before crossing the road. It is through animal photography that I practice patience so that I can capture and witness these priceless moments of communication between the animals. 

And so the whole herd of deers quickly made their way across the road. Safety is the utmost importance.

Drift ice along the drive

It was already 2pm by the time we had lunch. Time just passed when you are busy snapping away haha..and we didnt really felt the hunger. What shocked us is the huge servings of food served at that particular restaurant. 

The food was oishii but the amount was too much for us to take in. A single meal could be a better choice for 2 person sharing haha.. Then we learnt from the guide that people staying around this area are all farmers who work very hard, and they have big appetite. Hence, the food serving size is usually big to cater for them. Now we appreciate the reason haha.

After lunch, we slowly made our way to our hotel at Nakashibetsu town. There is only one road to this hotel. It is pretty secluded. The hotel is known as Yuyado-Daiichi

I can tell you this is the most posh onsen/ryokan accomodation I have ever stayed in. I will go visit again in the future!!It is so much better than in Kinosaki and Shibu onsen area haha. This I believe is the splurge factor of the trip!

The spacious lobby which we did all our shooting

We hoped to see some martens at the area. An excellent place for photography as the hotel lobby is facing large window panels, which faces the forest outside. So you could witness any animal action and photograph them while in comfort and warmth!

And our guide informed us that the onsen at this ryokan was the top best! It is a must try and of course I would not miss the chance!

Upon reaching the hotel, I changed and marched straight to the onsen hahaha..and it was just about sunset...so the rotenburo(outdoor onsen) offered spectacular views of the forest! It was a luxury as you immersed in the hot onsen while enjoying snow falling on your head :)

Something which I always envy while watching Channel News Asia's Japan Hour haha

And after freshening up, I headed to the lobby to meet the rest of the gang. We were awaiting the sight of any wildlife right outside the hotel window. After waiting for 1h or so, suddenly there was a big commotion at one corner. A Blakiston's fish owl was spotted! 

It was our first encounter and we were overwhelmed at this sight! The boss of the hotel commented that we were very lucky to spot this owl right in front of the hotel!

If not, we might be spending hours in the snow awaiting the arrival of this owl!

Everyone were so excited. Any slight movement of the owl was accompanied with heaps of camera clicks haha.. well I guess the owl must be very proud to have captured such an attention!

You can see how happy the owl was, savoring its catch!

And then, another person alerted us to another owl, which was hidden above the branches in the trees! Goodness! Two owls that night. It's likely the martens would hide though, as they knew there were the owls around... too bad , we did not spot any martens :(

With that owl-watching for 1.5h, we were famished and headed off for our long-awaited dinner.

The total number of dishes served was astonishing! We almost could not finish every single of them. But, it was real whole luxury for all of us! I didn't take any pictures as I was too famished but the food quality was really good!

To celebrate a wonderful night, some of us headed off for onsen again before resting!

It's my first time doing onsen at night. A memorable experience too :)

Rausu: 25th Feb 2015

So the alarm clock rang at 4am and I woke up with a tinge of reluctance as I didnt have good sleep for the past few days.. we woke up..got prepared..stacked tons of heatpads into our clothes..to brace the cold wind while on board the boat.

It was a first time experience for many of us. A short drive away from the hotel and we arrived at the port. We put on life jackets in addition to the layers of clothes which we already had. Armed with a tripod, we selected strategic positions, hopefully to capture some good shots of the eagles that were about to arrive as we ventured out to the sea..

And then, we saw the beautiful sun and the huge slabs of frozen sea ice..it's just a WOW in my freezing brain! I have never imagined seeing all these appearing in front of me. There were many sea gulls, Stellar eagles, white-tailed sea eagles flying in all directions, trying to snap fish and fighting food with one another. Sometimes, it was just interesting to stop looking at all these through the eyepiece of the camera, but just look at them with our own eyes to appreciate what the wild and nature has to offer.

White-tailed sea eagle trying to defend against the surrounding crows.

Steller's sea eagle in anti-parallel orientation

Fight between the Seagulls

The beautiful mountains which encompassed the sea where all the action were taking place.

Ferocious Tear to exhibit its hunger

A crab feast for the seagull.

I really appreciated the moment to observe how eagles fight for food, how crows try to be a "pest" and snatch some fish meat while the eagles were feasting away, how eagles got irritated by the crows and shoo-ed them off!

All these are moments that could not be witnessed in the boundaries of a zoo/birdpark. So it was pretty amazing to most of us although the biting cold was unbearable after an hour or so. I loved the majestic mountain that formed the backdrop, together with the drift ice in the foreground, as well as the subjects..

A 3h session passed on quickly and we arrived back to land.. trying to gain some composure without having any cold feet. Some of us were complaining we could no longer feel our hands and feet! Hard to believe but it was the cold fact!

We rested back at hotel for our well-deserved breakfast..and we drove out to spot any wild life along the way. We took a rest at some restaurant for lunch and recollected memories that we saw while at the cruise. 

Kuma-san, the dog at the hotel

The landscape that we saw along the drive was spectacular, no doubt all was white. . we tried spotting around, hoping to see some wildlife..if not dogs/cats..then we suddenly saw a cat-like creature, or rather it was me who shouted cat! when...it was actually a fox haha...

I mistook this as a cat!

The Japanese Red Fox contributing some stuff to the snow. Talking about natural process in nature!

A very dreamy feeling about this fox. It seemed that our dream had came true. 

nonetheless, many of us got really excited and we hopped out of the car, trying not to scare the fox away and took multiple shots of the fox as it crossed the road to climb up the mountain haha!

Crossing the road in a steadily manner.

One last look at the human population (us) before it disappeared into the woods.

Beware of foxes in the woods!

 and then, some of us saw the most magical thing..we saw three male deers moving on top of the hill that had beautiful trees..that was too fast to capture with our camera unfortunately..if you could allow me to image..it look somewhat like this..it was like a scene taken from a magical fairytale! And having to spot them during sunset made the moment even special.. that's why I love to travel..it is such unexpected moments that will live forever in your memory even after years have passed :)

So a fox was spotted..and we hoped for more wildlife to appear in front of our eyes. but there was none haha..so we called it a day..returned back to hotel for some onsen before dinner again.

It was a pity we did not get to experience the crab feast that night but was treated to a different type of meal... which was either you like it or you dont like it although the locals said to us that was a popular dish haha...well it was subjective!

Time for a good rest before our second boat trip early tomorrow morning!

The only pain in this trip was to wake up early almost every day.. but the reward we got back was usually immensely satisfying.. you live only once!

Kushiro: 23rd Feb 2015

We woke up early this morning for breakfast and to visit other crane viewing spots, hopefully to catch more crane action! Weather was however not great, as it was raining heavily. Today is basically a Crane day! So pardon for many shots of the cranes from the various locations :)

Morning: Tsurui Ito Tancho Sanctuary

Over here, I find the light is pretty harsh as it is nearing noon time. A good 2 hours spent here. Looking at different angles of the cranes. Trying to find new backdrop to fit the cranes into and form a picture.

Look at the crowd of photographers!

Me and my camera setup!

Our group photo before heading for lunch

I can hear my stomach growling after a whopping 2hours.. and am so glad we were heading for lunch next. Same place just like the previous day, we had lunch at this quaint restaurant. This time, I had some pork chop and it tasted really great!

Afternoon: Tancho Observation Center

Us on the road to the next destination!

We went back to this centre, which we had visited the previous day. To our surprise, today there were many more photographers as compared to yesterday. We had to thickskin a bit to squeeze in and get a good spot for photoshooting. We were glad the weather had brightened up despite still cold.. but sunny day was better than a wet and cold day!

Evening: Tsuruimidai

Before heading back to Dosanko Farm, we visited Tsuruimidai. I liked this place as there were some trees and "pond" to spot the cranes quenching their thirst. Weather was getting really cold and we were anticipating the flight of more cranes as sunset was nearing... however..we were disappointed haha.. the cranes didnt fly the direction we were expecting..instead they headed the opposite direction! That was a pity but still a spectacular sight for people like me who saw all these for the first time :)

Sunset arrived and there wasnt really much to do except to head back to Dosanko Farm for a well-deserved rest after a whole day out in the cold. Too bad Dosanko Farm does not have onsen facility, if not I would have jumped right into it after arriving haha..our dinner menu was different for today, but the standard remained excellent for us. I guessed I would stop eating Jap food in Singapore for the time being after being amazed by the high standards of culinary in Japan itself!

Today came back with better photos than the day before, although there is still a lot of room for improvement in terms of composition. I have never had the opportunity to shoot in the wild so intensely for the whole day, whatsmore in the shivering cold! Learnt more about myself, shooting, and to inject some creativity in the shots I'm showing here.. hopefully some of these could catch your eyes ;) More to come the following day as we are setting off to Rausu, a place to catch the early morning boat to see Stellar eagles in action!