Today I headed southwest to the small town of Noboribetsu. The main claim to fame here is a large onsen as well as a bunch of smaller ones as well. The reason they have these onsens is because they are on a large sulfur vent and have a series of natural hot springs in the area. I did not go to visit the onsen today as much as it probably would have been a good idea. Instead also in the neighborhood is the edge of a national park and a location called Jigokudani. Much like O-Jigoku in the Hakone region the park is a series of sulfur vents and hot springs with a couple geysers to boot. Apparently the geysers aren't too predictable so they sort of recommend you don't go near them but still it not really all that cordoned off as it would be in the US.
To get there I got up early as is my wont and headed to the train station for about 7:15. There I again partook of donuts and coffee from Mister Donut (why mess with a good thing) and then reserved a ticket to Noboribetsu. The train I took was a Hakuto Super Express which only makes a couple stops along the way and carried me to my destination in about an hour and 5 minutes. Once at the station in Noboribetsu it was obvious I recognized something in town. There is apparently a "Marine Park" which I think means water park though it may be an aquarium or both that has a replica of a Danish castle called the Castle Nixe as a center point to its grounds. You really couldn't mistake it from the train or the station at all. I remember a long time ago seeing that it existed through a webpage I found but I don't think I ever thought I was going to see it in person. So I quickly took a snapshot but I knew I was headed for the park so I didn't decide to investigate the building yet. I wish I could remember off the top of my head which castle it is mimicking though.
In order to get to Jigokudani you need to take a bus to the Noboribetsu Onsen. They seem to have a couple buses every hour or so and I didn't have to wait long for the one I needed to arrive. I think the bus ride was probably about 15 minutes including a couple stops for the locals aboard. At the bus station I quickly spoke to the tourist information person who said to just head uphill and I would find Jigokudani. Going up hill I ended up in the main street of the town and found another tourist info location and the girl here spoke English better so I was able to get more information from her. She said the park was about 5 minutes walk from her office and it would take about an hour and 10 minutes to walk the entire circuit. That sounded fine by me. Getting in I immediately could see the sulfur vents and some of the hot spring waters flowing in the main area of the park. Jigokudani means Hell Valley in Japanese by the way. Hell because of the hot and sulfur of course. This is what hell is like I am sure. The one thing to point out is that hot sulfur vents and the like make an already hot day even hotter and there were a few times along the day I may have considered regretting my choice except that I really enjoyed myself during the course of the day. There is a wood plank walkway that carries you out to a "geyser" that you are able to stand pretty much right on top of. It is a geyser in the sense that it vents on a repetitious basis however the venting is more of a bubbling than a geysering action. It is sort of like a boiling cauldron. I am sure it still counts.
From there I worked my way uphill and further into the park. I found the signs that suggested they led to Oyunuma which is a hot spring lake that is about 130C at its bottom and about 90C at its top in temperatures. I liked the walk through shaded areas but I got bitten by a couple of fly-like critters along the way which did result in some cursing. The hot spring lake was fairly impressive except maybe for the giant parking lot right on it. All the same you could feel the heat from it even in the summer weather and it really did look beautiful.
After that I worked my way up the road a bit until I found the turn in for another path. This path led downhill and eventually along a stream that bled off another possible geyser named Taisho Jigoku. This was the geyser with the unpredictability warnings. It appears that most people ignore fact they could be scalded by near boiling water and just moved the protective barriers away. In any event I didn't hang out there too long because I was sure it wouldn't bother shooting for me so I worked my way further down the path. This is where I figured I should be headed to the natural foot bath area. The stream basically rolls over a couple of waterfalls to the base area at the ground before it meets up with a different cold stream. The park has set up an area where you can take off your shoes and soak your feet in the near boiling waters of the hot springs. There was no way I was going to miss this. As soon as I got down there I took of my shoes and socks and dunked my feet right in. The water was fricken hot!. Still it was very pleasant and I think I was in soaking for over 15 minutes because it felt so good. I can think of a couple people I know who would be jealous for this experience. There were quite a few other people also dipping their toes while I was there including a German mother and son team (it appeared). The mother spoke some stuttering English and we exchanged pleasantries before they headed on their way. When I was done soaking it was on to the path again and then I found myself on a road and headed back into town. From town I was able to work my way back into the park where I took another quick stop at the main park building and had an ice cream and a Pocari Sweat from vending machines. Then I took the one central mountain trail that I had not yet taken by this point. I think all in all this was probably about three to three and a half hours of hiking (and soaking, which was the only real pause I took otherwise). The mountain trail had a few monuments to some poets that had written about the area. Unfortunately the translated signs did not translate the poetry. I would have enjoyed that.
When I returned to town I again visited the tourist information area. There is a crater lake named Lake Kuttara that is not very far from Jigokudani. Unfortunately it is really best visited by car, which I did not have. The girl said it would be about a 2 hour walk there and back. It basically already being around deeply past 1pm I new that would be a bad idea. Even assuming I walk faster than the average person I knew that was too long a trip. She instead suggested I visit the Bear Park where they have an observatory which allows you to see the entire lake. It is not the same as being there but she is probably right that the pictures are better from the distance.
So I headed to the Bear Park which was just down the street but then up a lot of stairs. That was fine. Then I realized that the actual way to the park was through my old arch-nemesis, the cable car. I was a bit dejected but all the same I had to do it. I had managed spending almost no money at this point but the entry to the park including the round trip ticket on the cable car was about $25. I can live with that but still I had managed a very cheap day after all to this point. So I got my ticket and clambered into a car. The very helpful man at the car entry popped a vent in the top of the car which helped the air flow very nicely (I wish this had been done on the way down). When the car started out it was rocking left and right like crazy but fortunately it calmed down after one or two of the posts it had to crawl over. This is the second cable car I have taken solo and I will state that I did not panic at all during it even with the swinging. Perhaps I am getting slightly better with heights over time. I doubt I am skydiving tomorrow but maybe there is improvement after all. At the top is the Bear Park which is not really all that big. The island of Hokkaido boasts a population of brown bears and the park has a bunch of them captive in a zoo-like situation. Honestly this whole ordeal made me sad. The park sells treats you can give to the bears and the bears have learned that if they pose that people are more likely to thrown them the treats than other bears. It is really not something I wanted to see as cool as the bears looked. It made me sad to think their lives had come to this instead of what they really should be doing in the wild. I guess they weren't in danger of being poached by the Chinese for some minuscule portion of their anatomy to be used in "medicine" but all the same they should be out free rather than performing for treats. That of course is just my opinion. I would at least rather see them in a preserve type situation rather than this. Also included in the park was the observatory which did have some really nice views including the crater lake and even a reasonably good distance picture of the Danish style castle, and also a small Ainu village which probably would have had more people working it on days that aren't Sunday (or maybe anyway). The Ainu are the indigenous population of Hokkaido (I think the name Hokkaido is actually an Ainu word though I cannot recall right now what it means.
When I was done with the Bear Park I rode the cable car back down and then it was on to the bus station where I rode back to the train station. I decided to take a quick detour to see if I could get any good pictures of the Danish castle but they had the views well protected by the park and the entry fee was over $21 which was far more than I was willing to commit for a couple of pictures that would only amuse George and myself. So I looped around the park and headed back to the train station. I reserved a seat on the next train which was unfortunately about an hour off but it was actually the best I could have done. Even if I didn't walk around the marine park I was still too late for the prior train by about 30 minutes. I guess the trains are not too frequent later in the day. I waited as patiently around the trains station for the 4:23 Limited Express Hakuto even though I was mostly starving. I didn't see anyplace to really get something to eat in all my journeys except for a restaurant in the Bear Park which was closed. So when the train came in I had to sit in a reserved seat in the ghetto cars because the green car was booked full and rode to the first stop out when a couple of women were going to have to sit one in front of the other and asked me to move seats which I did so they could sit next to each other. One of the girls gave me some gum as a peace offering. It was some sort of fruit flavor but the flavor didn't last that long unfortunately. The ride back was again about an hour and five minutes or so and I was deposited back in Sapporo Station.
I had seen the Italian style restaurant La Pausa on my other passes back and forth from the station and decide tonight would be my one take on Italian food on this trip in Japan. I didn't want to put a ton of thought into things as I was starving and it was right there. To be fair I couldn't put in too much thought because though they had a picture menu the descriptions were all in Japanese, not even the names of the dishes were there in English. All good by me. I probably should have picked a pizza but instead went for a pasta which turned out to be a pesto style with red peppers, olives and some small amount of chicken meat. It was actually quite good and the pasta cooked correctly. I accompanied the main meal with 2 Suntory beers. After the pasta was done I had an ice cream sundae like dessert that unfortunately had Special-K as a base underneath it. Not that I don't like the cereal but it made it really tough to get at the ice cream without everything shifting around and I lost probably about a third of the cereal on the table as it all fell about. In any event it was good, just messy and difficult.
Once done I headed back to the hotel with a brief stop at a Lawson to buy some beer and a snack. At the hotel I did some tub laundry and wrote this while winding down for the night.
The pictures from today are here.
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