By Michelle Alten

traditional Japanese dinner

Photos © Wolfgang Kaehler, phototours.us

Last night we checked into our charming inn, Ryokan Utaseya, and had a traditional Japanese dinner with about a dozen little courses including sashimi, a cooked scallop, salmon in a sesame sauce and striped prawns—both the prawns and salmon are special products of Hokkaido.  At the inn I also dipped into the hot spring, known for its clear water, ideal therapy for my cold.

Red fox

Our group of eager photographers began the day with a shoot at a location on Lake Furen where a man, a restaurant owner and very good photographer, feeds frozen fish to the eagles and Black-eared kites.  Steller’s sea eagle (Haliaeetus pelagicus), white tailed sea eagles and Black-eared kites all came to wrestle over the dinner.  The action shots with eagles sparing with their sharp talons in flight, was a photographer’s dream.

Fishing boats and buoys on a beach of the Notsuke Peninsula

Ezo deer (a subspecies of Sika deer, Cervus Nippon)

Throughout the day we spotted red foxes trotting through the snow.  On the Notsuke Peninsula, the foxes scampered between herds of Ezo deer.  Like the foxes, the Ezo deer (a subspecies of Sika deer, Cervus Nippon) are common and their numbers, some 600,000, are challenging for the people of Hokkaido to manage.  Both the foxes and the deer made great subjects for photography.
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