So far during our trip around Hokkaido we have been travelling with our awesome housemate, Marie, who just happens to be Japanese (major advantage!). But today we said goodbye to Marie and have began the next leg of our adventure on our own. We suddenly realised we should have spent the past 4 months more wisely, as our Japanese is extremely basic, consisting of: Good morning, excuse me, please, thank you, 2 more beers please, can we get the bill, delicious!, and goodnight. But I’m sure we will survive!
First stop, Lake Toya. It was a lovely morning, and quite warm (around 5 degree I think – which feels very warm to us!). However, it wasn’t super clear, with a haze around the mountains. This was a shame because the view of Mount Yotei and surrounds from across the lake would have been quite breathtaking I imagine. Having said that, Stephen and I really enjoyed the peace and calm and sat next to the lake taking it all in for quite some time.
Something I’d like to point out is that the local prefecture council have installed 58 (I think) different sculptural artworks around the lake edge. We didn’t see all of them, but what a great initiative!
Next stop, Noboribetsu area. We had been recommended to check out Hell Valley (Jigokudani). It reminded me of Rotorua, smelling strongly of sulphur(?), but it was still really interesting to see and the walks around the surrounding area were lovely.
So here’s some fun facts about the Noboribetsu area…
– Hell Valley is about 6kms inland from Noboribetsu city in the river valley in a smaller town called Noboribetsu-onsen.
– Onsen is the Japanese term for hot spring and the town has a range of onsen for bathing, which are all fed by Jigokudani.
– 850 m above sea level, Hell Valley was given the name Jigokudani because of the steam from the hot spring that rises up everywhere along the vertical cliffs (similar to hell?). This is very unusual for Hokkaido, and attracts a lot of tourists year round.
– The surrounding natural environment is also very unusual, and is covered in snow for almost one-third of the year. The snow was melting while we were there, with some parts still quite deep, and other parts completely melted away.
– There is a large lake/pond called Oyunuma, a sulfureous pond with a surface temperature of 50 degrees Celsius and a smaller, even hotter, mud pond nearby.
– From the lake flows the Oyunumagawa river, which remains hot for quite a long distance.
The best part of our day was finding this river and making our way to a place where we could take our shoes off and put our feet into the hot flowing water. Pretty fun (once you get over the horrid smell).
Bye for now.
M & S.
Steve & Meegs 