Continuing from my previous itinerary post HEREโฆ
We set off from Sapporo bright and early towards Jigokudani, Noboribetsu to conquer the Hell Valley! ๐น
Jigokudani (ๅฐ็่ฐท) or “Hell Valley” is a glorious, aptly named ravine just above the town of Noboribetsu, which exhibits hot steam vents, sulfurous streams and other volcanic activity. It is a main source of Noboribetsu’s hot spring waters that fuel our favourite Japanese onsens!
From the valley, there are long, winding trails through the wooded hills above Noboribetsu. If you follow them for about 20 to 30 minutes, you will get to Oyunuma, a sulfurous pond with a surface temperature of 50 degrees Celsius and a smaller, even hotter, mud pond nearby.
We parked halfway uphill at one of the lower carparks near the hot spring hotels and the main shopping/ food lane, tiny little Gokuraku Dori Shopping Street. Good news is you only need to pay once at the first carpark and hang on to your parking chit to gain access to all the above carparks so thatโs great for lazy folks (like us) who want to drive further up to explore instead of hiking up.
Just follow the billowing steam and a distinct rotten egg smell upwards to the amazing sulphur pools! There are also clean public toilets in the souvenir shop for a quick freshening up. From the main signage, you can explore the maze of trails around the main pool – and snap plenty of cool photos!
We loved spotting the townโs 11 demon statues scattered all around, appropriately guarding the gates to Hell!
Did you know: Noboribetsu Onsen generates 10,000 tons per day of naturally flowing hot water daily. It is referred to as the โDepartment Store of Onsenโ for its wide variety of water types! There is also an active geyser that erupts periodically at Gensen Park, right next to the lower carpark.
When we were leaving, more tourists were actually arriving up the hill to catch the hellish night scene – the sulfur gorges transform into a completely different sight at night, lit up by lamps along the smoky paths.
For lunch, we popped back down to Gokuraku Dori Shopping Street in search of the local must-try dish Enma Yakisoba, spicy fried noodles named after the Demon King Enma. We decided on Onsen Ichiba cos’ lunch options were quite limited on the small street and waited about 30 mins for a seat. The food was yummy and affordable but the Enma Yakisoba was quite plain and definitely not as spicy as we anticipated it to be. For some reason, the whole restaurant was also chokingly smoky, probably due to a faulty ventilation system because I didnโt see this issue in any of the online reviews. Hopefully they get it fixed cos I couldnโt even sit indoors for long and had to head out to the cold crisp air for a breather occasionally.
There is also a huge King Enma statue next to Onsen Ichiba that would come to life and change his face (from human to demon) at fixed hourly timing so we went to check out this mini performance once we were done with lunch.
I was wearing grossly unsuitable footwear aka my favourite fluffy boots and so instead of trekking up, we headed back to the car to drive up to our next stop further uphill- Oyunuma!
Flowing out of Oyunuma is a river called Oyunumagawa. Still hot, the river flows through the forest, making for an out-of-this-world sight. It is possible to follow the river for several hundred meters and enjoy a natural foot bath (ashiyu) along the way.
Clearly wearing a completely inappropriate outfit but who caressssss the natural foot bath was so warm and relaxing!!
After soaking our feet happily for about an hour, the sun was already starting to set (one of the woes of travelling in autumn & winter). We managed to catch a glimpse of this majestic sunset over Oyunuma and golden skies all the way to our night stop at Lake Toya, a short drive away.
It seems really dark but it was only like 5-6 pm so after checking in at our Lake Toya hotel we still had to hunt for our dinner. We stayed at a quaint, traditional hotel with the cutest tatami mats & futons, as well as a fantastic view of Lake Toya BUT the staff were sooo rude ๐ That aside, we wandered around the empty town (do note that the shops in Lake Toya close super early) and stumbled upon this mookata place Gyusuke cosโ I was craving teppanyaki but this was the next best thing. Our dinner was so awesome!! Just a little expensive but typical Japanese prices. The ingredients were so fresh and grilling meats in the cold weather was super shiok!!
We quickly finished up our dinner because we wanted to catch the nightly Lake Toya fireworks by the river!! Walking by the side of the lake back towards our hotel in the crisp chilly night air and following the fireworks boat along the bank was one of the most memorable experiences of our trip ๐ With full hearts and warm tummies, we tucked into our futons and fell asleep to the lake breeze by our windows.
The next morning after breakfast we headed to the lake for a stroll in the soft morning sun. Okay if you come to Lake Toya strolling by the lake will make up a huge part of your itinerary but you can also choose to go ONTO the lake either with the tour cruises or paddle boats. We were rushing off to Hakodate though so we just soaked in the stunning lake views and off we went in our trusty ๅฐ้ป๏ผ
Our Hakodate adventures will continue in my next post HERE ๐ฅฐ
If you are booking your next holiday or road trip with KKDay, donโt forget to use my promo code SALLY10KK for 10% off! ๐ฐ #KkdaySG
