Monday, August 15, 2016

Noboribetsu Onsen

Noboribetsu Onsen is a hot spring town than can be explored as a day trip from Sapporo. It's about an hour and a half by train to Noboribetsu town on the coast, and then a hour bus ride up the mountain to the hot spring town. As soon as you arrive, you smell sulfur in the air, and there are vents everywhere emitting steam from underground. There is one main shopping street, and several large hotels that each have their own hot spring baths. Just behond the main street, there is a park with trails around a desolate area called Jigokudani, which is consists of sulfurous mounds of earth with natural vents emitting steam.



Beyond that, about a half hour walk through forested trails takes you to a lake called Oyunuma, which consists entirely of hot spring water. There is a stream flowing out of the lake, and a little ways downstream there is a platform where you can enjoy a natural hot spring foot bath:

After walking around I went back to the hot spring town, and went into the large public bath. It is huge, with over half  dozen different baths of different temperatures and mineral content.  After a couple of hours there, I caught the bus back to the town and then fell asleep on the train back to Sapporo.




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