July 14, 2009Sarah

Toyako to Noboribetsu Onsen to Asahikawa

Day 4 of 17 Days (Tuesday) – Toyako – Noboribetsu Onsen – Asahikawa

It’s a bright sunny morning!!! Chase yesterday’s gloom away. Since we’re waken up at about 4am ;p we go for a dip in the onsen, return to pack our luggage. Then, waiting hungrily for our breakfast to arrive at 7am. Anyway, they already knock on our door at 6.45am to wake us up. Talk about punctuality.

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The weather is great for taking photographs. So we retrace our steps to Sculpture Park. Everything become so beautiful under the clear blue sky, in contrast with last evening’s gloomy sky.

It’s extremely warm and we’re not complaining about it. However, we still couldn’t see one of the mountains clearing as it’s fully covered by the clouds 😦 Anyway, we are early for the bus that would bring us back to the train station. We buy a packet of milk and wait at the hotel lobby. About 15 minutes before the scheduled time, we walk to the unsheltered bus-stop. An obasan tries to strike a conversation with us to no avail, and obviously trying to say that we are very underdressed. Because we are in T-shirt, demin skirt and a pair of berkis. But it’s warm, only occasional cool breeze. She even “molested” my left upper arm :p .Anyway, when the bus arrives, she walks away without boarding the bus :S
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We’re set for our day trip to Noboribetsu Onsen (登別温泉) Station. As per standard operation, we quickly put our luggage into a locker and catch a bus to Noboribetsu (we only have 5-min between the train arrival and the bus departure for the town) ;s

After we alighted at the Tourist Information Centre, the lady there is very helpful to introduce us the various walking trails. Eh, we are very lazy plus the weather is getting warmer. So we politely thank her and walk from Gokuraku Shopping Street (actually nothing much to shop:P)  to Jigokudani (地獄谷 or Hell Valley), which is about 15 minutes away.

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It’s indeed smelly, sulfur!!! No snake then. We are very impressed with the Walking Trail but don’t think we are up to it. We ask a volunteer tour guide where is the D-site that we want to visit. It’s quite unimpressive :s and made us walk so far under the hot sun :S
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What’s best thing in life when it’s hot and smelly? A simple ice-cream 😉 Next is attending to nature call in the Hell Valley?

No, it’s to a day trip to Daiichi Takimotokan (第一滝本館), which is heavenly in the Hell Valley. Again, we’re lost in communication with the counter staff until a Japanese woman assists as our translator. Apparently the counter staff is trying to tell us that we should have lunch by 2pm and we tell her that we want to have lunch at 12.30pm, so she is very surprise that we could complete our onsen dip within half an hour. So she tells us we can’t finish in half an hour:s  If she keeps on talking (which is not even the main point), I don’t think we can do so ;p

There are many types of onsen pools here. Really wish we can have a day here or stay overnight. We have a soba lunch set at the deserted restaurant, only two of us. We manage to complete our lunch on time. The counter staff is very impressed and we ask her to help us call a cab (free of charge in Japan so far). Hehehe.

Looking at the cab meter and the passing scenery, I figure the person who advised in a travel forum in the internet that cab fare is about 800 yen to the train station is totally wrong!!! Or there’s a typo, which shall be at least 1800yen :S

We can only console ourselves that we are to catch the 2pm train to Asahikawa, and there’s no bus during this period (don’t ask me why the bus schedule is so strange as there is an interval of more 2 or 3 hour during lunch time), if we miss this train, we will have to wait for more than one hour for another train. Time is money!!! Indeed we are glad we did that.

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We travel north to Asahikawa via Sapporo, which take us about 3 hours. While we transfer train at Sapporo, we suddenly feel that it is very crowded and busy.

We reach Asahikawa (旭川) after 5pm. The temperature here seems lower and our dressing seems out of place as people are in coats :S  We are in skirt and berkis at 19 deg C, definitely “undercovered” ;p However, we aren’t particularly cold. Beside Asahikawa Zoo, it is also famous for its ramen. Our hotel is right next to the train station, we cross the street towards Kaimono Koen Dori, where the shopping area is ;p We are looking for food.
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We decide on Aoba Ramen House (旭川らぅめん青葉) at a street corner, where there’s a stall in Manpuku in Tampines 1 . Aoba is the one of the oldest ramen shops in Asahikawa, which was started by Mr Murayama’s father. He and his wife are very excited to know that we are Singaporeans. He tells us that his second shop is opening in Ion Orchard on 21 July 2009. It’s a happy dinner as we try to communicate with my smattering Japanese :pppp

Mr Murayama even asked us to write in his Campus notebook, which are filled with compliments from all over the world. We take photographs together. When we leave, Mrs Murayama runs out of the shop to pass us our souvenir, two Aoba towels. Such warm hospitality! So sweet!

Before we go back to our noisy hotel room, which is situated next to a Beer Garden, we do some window-shopping in the area. The reason that we don’t mind a noisy room instead of one at smoking level is that we could stand noise more than smoke while we want a room with internet connection. The irony is, I can’t connect to the internet. Anyway, the noise dies down after 9pm though the BBQ smell lingers :s

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