From lovely Hakodate we made our way to Noboribetsu via a 2.5 hours train trip. We were welcomed by bear and oni signs at the station. After all Noboribetsu is well known as the gateway to hell (Jigokudani) as well as for their bear park.
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| Hello Bear - Galaxy S23+ |
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| Lindsay Just Watching Our Luggages - Galaxy S23+ |
Our first night was calm and relaxing, we explored the shopping area near the hotel, had some good milk, pudding and ice cream in a small quaint shop.
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| Exploring The Shopping Area - A7RMk3 + FE24mm F1.4GM |
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| The Missus Found Her Favourite Strawberry Milk - A7RMk3 + FE24mm F1.4GM |
After that short exploration, we returned to the hotel for a buffet dinner. The dinner was simply marvellous, with so many options to choose from, such as freshly fried tempura prawns, beef steak, Myanmar and Filipino delicacies cooked by native chefs and the main menu was snow crab legs. I frankly never saw the missus ate so many crab legs at one go.
After that grand dinner, the missus wanted to go for onsen while I decided to wait till the following night. I was still uncomfortable with the idea of walking around naked in a public bath.
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| Nice Room, But Not As Nice As Yunokawa Prince Nagisatei - Galaxy S23+ |
On the following morning, we missed the breakfast buffet as we woke up too late. I was really pissed off because the meals there were very expensive. So missing a buffet session was really a big loss. In any case we just ate the snacks we bought the night before for breakfast before heading out to Hell Valley.
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| Good Morning From Hell Valley - Galaxy S23+ |
Hell Valley was really scenic. The cold wind and winter landscape, plus the sulfur smoke made for such a dramatic scene that was really unforgettable.
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| Walkway Along The Valley - A7RMk3 + FE24mm F1.4GM |
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| Another Beautiful View - A7RMk3 + FE24mm F1.4GM |
I really enjoyed the sight in Hell Valley. Unfortunately some tracks were closed as winter made them unpassable. Not to mention there's a risk of encountering bears in those areas.
From Hell Valley, it was time to meet real bears at the bear park. Going up the hill to the bear park was really, really taxing...
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| Yep 115 metres, UP - Galaxy S23+ |
But the moment we took the cable car to reach the park, we had the most beautiful sight we could ever see from a cable car. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos as I was too busy taking videos...
When we arrived at the peak, our attention was drawn to the replica Ainu village in the complex where we could see how the Ainu people live back then. And then we saw the most beautiful lake in a volcanic crater there too.
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| Beautiful Lake There - A7RMk3 + FE24mm F1.4GM |
The sights from the top of the bear museum was really breathtaking to say the least.
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| Another Marvellous Bird's Eye View - Galaxy S23+ |
And of course from there we had to go see the bears themselves, they are the main attractions after all.
The first bears we encountered were these bear cubs who were playing around with each other gleefully.
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| Cute Bear Cubs Playing - Galaxy S23+ |
Then we went on to see the adult bears and got to feed them. Feeding them was really fun, the bears are so intelligent, they raised their paws asking for the biscuits.
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| First Time I Saw Bears Asking For Food - A7RMk3 + FE24mm F1.4GM |
After spending a bit more time at the bear park, we finally returned back to the hotel for our next buffet dinner where the missus had more snow crab legs.
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| More Snow Crab Legs - Galaxy S23+ |
After dinner, it was finally time for me to have onsen in a public bath, for the first time. It was an uncomfortable experience which I don't want to go through again for sure. The sight of men walking around naked was really disturbing and somewhat vulgar, I really couldn't enjoy the bath even if they are supposed to have some healing properties. But I must admit the outdoor onsen experience was really good, having hot bath under a light snow was an amazing experience.
Anyway, after that somewhat harrowing experience it was time to pack up and go to bed.
On the following morning, we checked out from Takimoto Kan and went back to Noboribetsu Station to continue our journey to Sapporo.
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| Bye Mr. Bear & Mr. Oni - Galaxy S23+ |
Here's a closing shot for part 3 of our 2025 Japan holiday.
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| The Missus at Hell Valley Noboribetsu - A7RMk3 + FE24mm F1.4GM |
~ Photos Taken With Samsung Galaxy S23+ and Sony A7RMk3 + FE24mm F1.4GM ~
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