Smelly, hellish, hot floor ground and hot shipping port water

Today’s trip was to “Jikukodani” (“hells gorge”) in the hills of Noboribetsu.
Public traffic is a bit different in Hokkaido. As the whole island is more rural traffic is more car centric than the main island. This makes it a bit more challenging to get by using public transport.  And the IC cards get a lot less use. (I used to call my Pasmo card “Multipass” because on the other islands I could use this prepaid card to pay virtually anything.)
Here it is prepaid ticket stubs that you sometimes put into a machine (at the bigger stations), show to a conductor exiting the station (at smaller stations), or it even gets checked by the train driver when you exit the train (at the smallest stops). Add this with a lot less “local” trains and you have to plan a lot more if you want to get by.

Getting the appropriate ticket stub is quite easy though. Just go to any of the ticket machines, look up and find your destination station, next to it there will be the required fare. The ticket machine will offer you a list of fares that match the ones on the board and you just select the fitting one. Add some money and voila. There is your ticket.

So arriving at Noboribetsu station I surrendered my ticket stub to the attendant, and the ride was concluded.
To get to the hellish part of today’s trip the next mode of transportation was a bus ride. Using the old school payment system of course. Well, almost. There is a ticket machine for the bus ride to the onsen area within the train station. So you exchange coins for a paper stub that says how much money you exchange at what date.
Boarding the bus, you take one of the numbered tickets. Then you listen to the English/ Japanese announcement until your stop is called. Next, you exit the bus at the drivers door and drop both of you tickets into the slot of the counting machine. If you don’t have a prepaid ticket, you can throw in the exact fare as well. How the machine detects what you entered is still a mystery to me. Because it will tell if the cash amount fits.

At the terminus it was up the mountain by foot into hells valley. Past huge statues of devils/daemons and their clubs. One of the sights was quite a bit smaller and more peaceful as we passed a deer gracing in the middle of the village. The small geysir at some crossroads was situated next to a place surrounded by clubs.
The heavenly support was ensured by the shrine on the other side. Of course you had to climb some stairs before it was possible to pray.

Further on the real valley with the sulfuric hot springs and the accompanying smell was finally reached. Hot water and brimstone. At least the temperatures were a bit more normal with 29 degrees C.
The footpath was  very well built out and had guardrails. Even the small excursion into the middle of the valley was pretty well built out. From one spring with 80 degree water was nicely visible. The grave markers on the little hills around the path did warn not to climb over the railing, though.
The trails allowed for a nice track to another, bigger lake in the middle of the volcanic mountains. But it’s  probably not a good idea to take a bath in the source of the Oyunuma River Natural Spring. After a couple hundred meters this little river provides us with a free footpath location.
With everything from black sand in the riverbed, wooden planks on the banks of the river and even seating pads to prevent dirty trousers.  And of course nice warm water to dip your feet in.

The way back along the street shows you how desperate the hotel here were for space as some of them have been built way up on a small footprint.

Being back from hell the next item on today’s agenda was a big onsen. Very aptly named “The big Bath”. Not only does it get it’s water from hells valley but from 5 other hot springs as well. Resulting in multiple different additives in the water. One just alaun, the next some salt, another one with sulphur and the next one with ferrous sulphate. Of course there is some clear spring water as well. Add to that 2 saunas (one dry and one wet) and the multitude of pools separated on two floors and an outdoor area on the lower one and you have a big wellness area. I did not visit the swimming pool as that was a textile only area.
But I tried out the different areas with their descriptions for which skin condition should be addressed with which kind of bath.
After about an hour the 19 degree clear water pool was a welcome change from all the hot pools I have to say. Even though 29 degrees outside temperature can be a good contrast to the hotter sulphuric pool. Or sitting in the founders bath watching another deer gracing next to you. This pool with ferrous sulphate water was clad out with wooden planks. And it smelled like brackish harbour water to me. But the water was clear and there was even a small wooden construction with a water wheel and multiple channels to cool the water down before it arrived.

Lunch was Sapporo miso Ramen.  Quite dark and very filling. I did not dare to take the cold Ramen, though.
Maybe I should.

On the way back, the doors to the big devils abode were open, and still another deer decided to grace right next to the sidewalk. This bath did not have a problem with tattoos by the way.

On the bus ride back I did the pay at the drivers option. The next local train would have been over an hour wait. So the limited express with the reserved seat it was. Interestingly this was the first time I’ve seen serious delay on a Japanese train. 5-8 minutes on our train to 20 minutes in the opposite direction.  And yes, the signage was prepared for that.
As this was a smaller station we could not go onto the platform until 5 minutes before the train arrived, and we had to hand in our tickets to be stamped by hand while passing onto the platforms.
Once outside, a looped message came up telling us where to queue up for our car. The message was in Japanese and English, and once it finished, it started right from the beginning again.  After a few minutes, it started to get really annoying.
But it was accurate. It even included the moved points due to ongoing construction.
Back in Tomakomai, leaving the station building, the day finally cought up with my legs. And they started to resemble jelly.
So the only thing I was able to do in the evening was a short walk around the block.