Noboribetsu - Hell Valley

Well this is embarrassing! I wrote a few post on Noboribetsu and forgetfully left out the main attraction! Yeah, I'm the type of traveller that needs to be dragged to visit the Eiffel Tower when I visit Paris. (Trus Story!). I hate  main attraction because they are usually crowded, expensive, and over rate. 

So to get me warm up, maybe I'll write above the geyser hole next to our inn first. It was just, well, next door.  I can't remember if I visited it last time, but the very small park has one dark hole in it. 

And this is what the hole looks like. You can hear the steam and bubbling sound coming out of it. It sounds like it's going to explode any time. You can't really get close to it as it's blocked off. Every once it a while, some steam/water comes out burning hot! The sound was so loud. It really gives you the imaginary image of how hot our earth's core is, and how powerful it is. 

Ok, so off to the main attraction. We wanted to go on the first day, but it was filled with elderly tourist walking at super slow speed in the winter that we decided to come back when it was less crowded. On the day we visit, it was filled with Korean tourist. At the start/end of the path, there is a shrine. It was easier to walk in a sense cause the path is covered in broad walk. But it also means that the snow turned into ice, and it was super slippery, and sloppy, and you hold on to the rails like crazy. 

Hell Valley is the main attraction in Noboribetsu. It's free, so do visit it. You can walk here day time or night time! They illuminate the place at night. It's just a small valley, and you can walk into it and out in less than an hour. 

All around it, you will smell the scent of sulphur, and see the mountains surrounding it. The path just leads you in, and around the hot geyser in the center. 

This is where the center of the heat seems to be coming from. You can boil an egg here and eat it for long life. We've done all those cliches things before, in the comfort of a small town called Yunomine in Wakayama.

Ok! And that's it for Noboribetsu! Next stop, another hot spring resort called Jozankei!