Hokkaido Trip: Day 1 @ Noboribetsu, the Onsen Heaven

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Hola!!! I have decided to return to the blogging world and start blogging about the amazing adventures that I had while traveling to different corners of the world. Especially after traveling to numerous countries for the past 2 years, I realized it would be such a waste if nothing was ever recorded or jotted down. So let's randomly start this off with my Hokkaido trip months ago. =)

Day 1: 28th June 2017 (Wednesday)

How to rent a car?

You can rent any car type of your choice at Samurai Rental Car website. I rented a two-seater Toyota Passo (which is similar to a Perodua Viva over here). There's ample space to put two big luggage at the back of the car. Car pickup location is nearby the airport and you would need to take a shuttle bus there.

You will need an ETC card as well to pay for the toll fees when you drive on highways. I got mine on TOCOO where I got my Wi-Fi router as well. You would have to pick up both ETC card and Wi-Fi router at the airport's post office.

 

Remember to get your international driving license at JPJ as it is a requirement for foreign drivers in Japan.

After picking up the Wi-fi router and also getting the car, I drove all the way from Shin-Chitose Airport to Noboribetsu which took me about 1 hour. Most people would drive to Sapporo and spent a whole full day there before travelling to neaby townships such as Otaru or Noboribetsu. Somehow Sapporo being the capital of the Hokkaido island doesn't seem to intrigue me a lot so I chose to spent my morning at Noboribetsu before venturing into the Sapporo for the rest of the day.

Managed to park my car at a hotel carpark just before Hell Valley and got away without paying anything. The tips is to actually buy something from 7-11 and park at their designated carpark. It's free! This applies to everywhere in Hokkaido! Or else you would have to pay expensive parking fees throughout the trip and it would sum up to a pretty significant amount.

 
Had quick lunch at this place before walking all the way up to the famous Hell Valley!


You can check this place out as they are quite famous for their seafood.


Follow your google map (extremely important and useful in Japan) and you will see the signboard of Hell Valley (Jigokudani) after about 5 minutes walk from 7-11. Being able to read Chinese characters is a helpful thing if you were to travel in Japan.

And in no time you will find yourself at the breathtaking Hell Valley, which is the main source of Noboribetsu hotsprings water!


You will be greeted by a strong sulfur smell upon arriving at the scene. I guess this is why the locals name it Hell Valley as the sight of volcanic steam oozing out from the ground and the boiling sulfuric yellow hotsprings/mountains makes you think of what would hell look like.


Visiting the tourist spot in the early morning is an advantage as you will be able to avoid crazy crowd and it's also easier to take photo without having to wait for your turn.

Absolutely gorgeous and definitely worth making an one hour trip for.




First spot: 铁泉池 which direct translates in Steel Hotspring Pond. XD

Boiling hot steam!

Second spot: Oyunuma Pond. You will need to hike a trail for about 15 to 20 minutes to get here. There's a foot bath nearby but my mum was too tired of walking to explore further so we stopped our journey here and went back to the carpark.


It's a huge natural pond and looks bigger in real life. You will be amazed by how gorgeous this place is.

It's about 1:30pm by the time we had done visiting Hell Valley so we quickly hopped into the car and started our journey to Sapporo!

Next post will be about Sapporo!