Nimbly crossing loose roof tiles and splintered wooden beams, she sniffed through the wreckage of a destroyed wooden house in Wajima, one of the cities worst hit by the 7.5-magnitude earthquake on New Year's Day.
Along with rescuers including Japanese troops, the large black dog with pointed ears was searching for an elderly woman possibly buried under the rubble of her home.
"Please Elsa, please find her," came a voice from a crowd of neighbours and other relief workers watching their efforts, three days after the disaster struck.
The dog was brought to the coastal city by Yasuhiro Morita from his rescue dog training centre around 500 kilometres (300 miles) away in western Tottori region.
"She reacts to dead bodies when searching the rubble -- she is trained to always bark when she finds a body," Morita told AFP.
"But today, she just wandered off towards the bystanders instead, which likely means there was no body inside," he said.
Morita described Elsa as "the best of the best in western Japan", but she wasn't the only mutt on the job -- the defence minister announced Thursday that a rescue dog named Jennifer had found an elderly woman under the rubble who was pulled out and saved.
The ravaged house was just one of the devastating scenes in Wajima and other parts of Ishikawa on the Sea of Japan coast.
Strong aftershocks have shaken the region since Monday's terrifying main tremor, which triggered landslides, a major fire and a tsunami more than a metre high.
As of Friday, 92 people had been confirmed dead in the disaster, with 242 others reported missing.
Wajima resident Hiroyuki Hamatani, 53, had been relaxing with his relatives when the quake struck.
"Things fell over and walls crumbled, and the entrance door also collapsed. The house itself is standing, but it's far from liveable now," he told AFP.
Water and food are scarce, as "supplies have hardly arrived yet, but I guess they're on their way now", he said.
"I don't have the space in my mind to think about the future. Things are all scattered inside my house. More aftershocks could make it collapse, so I can't go back just yet."
On the approach to Wajima -- a city of around 23,000 residents, known for its artisan lacquerware -- tunnels were partially blocked by fallen boulders, and mountain surfaces had been left barren by landslides.
Flattened houses lined the route, with debris and snow dotting the sides of the road.
- 'No trace left' -
Even more shocking sights awaited those who made it into the city.
An imposing seven-storey building lay on its side, while fallen utility poles blocked a path surrounded by twisted wreckage.
"Is someone there? Answer us please!" a soldier was heard shouting while his team searched the ruins of a home for another missing resident, entering through broken windows.
The quake sparked a blaze that laid waste to an entire market area where 200 structures reportedly burned down.
There, the ground was blanketed in charred building materials, with burned-out cars sitting in front of a topsy-turvy backdrop of houses dislodged from their foundations.
Standing looking at the ruins was Shinichi Hirano, 47.
"This is where my grandma's house used to be, but it's all burned down," he told AFP.
"She passed away a while ago, so her house has long been vacant, but still, this area is full of fond memories," he said, reminiscing about a cake store and a barbershop he used to frequent as a child.
"But they're all gone. I only see burned ruins now," he said, with a sad smile on his face.
"It pains me" to see these familiar places decimated, Hirano said, adding: "I'm just speechless."
An 80-year-old man, who declined to give his name, gazed on woefully as the pungent smell of soot wafted through the air.
Even three days after the earthquake, faint columns of smoke were still billowing here and there in the desolate city.
"I came to check on my relatives. I haven't been able to see them yet," the elderly man said.
"This is just terrible. There is no trace left," he said.
"Terrible," he repeated, sighing heavily at the sight. "It's just like war."
Under rubble, hopes fade for survivors of Japan quake
Wajima, Japan (AFP) Jan 4, 2024 -
Thousands of Japanese rescuers, some with sniffer dogs, on Thursday battled rubble and blocked roads as hopes faded for dozens listed as missing three days after a devastating earthquake that killed at least 84.
Hundreds of people in more than a dozen communities remained cut off in Ishikawa prefecture in central Japan, devastated by the 7.5-magnitude quake on New Year's Day.
Regional governor Hiroshi Hase told a disaster management meeting that as of 4:00 pm (0700 GMT), 72 hours after the quake, "the survival rate of those in need of rescue is said to drop precipitously".
Many cheered on social media late Thursday news reports that a woman in her 80s trapped on the ground floor of her house had been rescued three days after the quake.
"Incredible! Hope she'll get better," one user wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
"Rescue team, thank you!," said another.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told a press conference that the quake is "the worst catastrophe" in recent years, adding that access to the hardest-hit Noto Peninsula region remained challenging because of its geography and because of the aftershocks that followed the quake.
"The situation remains difficult, but we will continue to do our utmost to support the victims," he said.
- 'No body inside' -
The powerful main tremor, followed by hundreds of aftershocks, injured at least 330 people, local authorities said.
Authorities published a list on Thursday of 179 people whose whereabouts were unknown.
With hundreds sleeping in emergency shelters, further scenes of destruction were seen by AFP in the coastal towns of Anamizu and Wajima, including burnt-out cars in a market area ravaged by fire.
Thousands of soldiers, firefighters and police officers from across Japan combed through the rubble of collapsed wooden houses and toppled commercial buildings for signs of life.
Elza, a black sniffer dog with pointy ears, moved carefully between tiles torn from roofs and wooden beams littering the ground, looking for an elderly resident believed buried under the rubble. Nearby, a voice pleaded from a crowd of local residents, "Please, Elza, find her."
Elza's owner Yasuhiro Morita, working with a rescue unit in Wajima, said the dog was trained to bark when it finds a body.
"But today, she just wandered off toward bystanders instead, which likely means there was no body inside," Morita told AFP.
- No power -
Military hovercraft delivered heavy construction equipment and vehicles to the devastated port city by sea.
Around 30,000 households were without electricity in Ishikawa on the Sea of Japan coast, and 89,800 homes there and in two neighbouring regions had no water.
Access was blocked to small communities in the hardest-hit Noto Peninsula region -- with 300 people desperately waiting for aid at a school in the town of Ooya in the Suzu area.
"Even if I give my food to my children, it is not enough at all. I have eaten almost nothing for the past two days," a woman in her 30s with three children in Suzu told the Asahi Shimbun newspaper.
- 'Critical' 72 hours -
In the city of Nanao, police managing traffic told drivers that one of the main roads leading to Wajima had been prioritised for emergency vehicles, and workers said they were rationing car fuel.
Monday's main shockwave triggered tsunami waves at least 1.2 metres (four feet) high in Wajima, and a series of smaller tsunamis were reported elsewhere.
Broadcaster NHK reported that one person was swept away by the tsunami in Noto's Suzu area, with the coastguard investigating.
Japan experiences hundreds of earthquakes every year and most cause no damage, with strict building codes in place for more than four decades.
Earthquakes have hit the Noto region with intensifying strength and frequency over the past five years.
The country is haunted by a massive 9.0-magnitude undersea quake in 2011, which triggered a tsunami that left around 18,500 people dead or missing.
It also swamped the Fukushima atomic plant, causing one of the worst nuclear disasters in history.
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