Traveling in Japan: Noboribetsu

The northern Japanese island of Hokkaido has interested in me for a while. I've seen pictures from my friends who have visited and from my guidebook depicting a wild an open land filled with bears and foxes, sulfuric hot springs and snow-covered mountains, and snowboarding and biking opportunities. Hokkaido is much less densely populated than Japan's main island, Honshu, which has Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto, as well as other major metropolitan areas. Therefore, Hokkaido is not as an outdoorsy getaway from the hustle and bustle of Honshu city life.

My 5-day trip in Hokkaido started out in the onsen town of Noboribetsu. After flying from Tokyo's Narita Aiport to New Chitose Airport in Hokkaido, I took a couple of trains to get to Noboribetsu (take my advice and spend the extra money on express trains), and I finally took a bus from JR Noboribetsu Station to the onsen part of Noboribetsu. Planes, trains, and automobiles!



For those of you who don't know, onsen is defined both as a hot spring and the bathing facilities that use/surround said hot springs. The other side of this is santo, which are baths filled with heated tap water. Japanese people put a higher premium on onsen because the mineral-rich hot spring water is believed to have healing and restorative properties. Noboribetsu is probably the most popular onsen town (a town which is built close to an onsen and provides onsen services) in Hokkaido.

As a result of my trip's schedule, I only had one afternoon in Noboribetsu Onsen, but that was all the time I needed to see the sites. However, I would've liked to have had more time to soak in the various onsen around the area. And it would have been great to be able to spend days there just soaking in those hot baths!

I started by walking around the hot spring which is called Jigokudani, which roughly translates to "Hell Valley". This particular area is the is barren of plant life, has steam emanating from various points in the ground, and reeks of sulfur. From there, I hiked up to overlook a sulfuric lake called Oyunama which heats up its water up to 266 degrees Fahrenheit! After that, I bathed my feet in an open stream that was thankfully at a much more tepid temperature than Oyunama.




Finally, I went to the cheapest onsen in the town to bathe. Apparently, the one I went to was most popular with locals. Not much different than the ones I frequented in South Korea. Except here the water was from natural springs.

Unfortunately, I didn't allow myself enough time at the onsen before I had to take the bus back into town. Noboribetsu Onsen was a cool little first stop on my Hokkaido trip. It would be a great place to come for a few days of soaking!


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