Hokkaido~DAY5 Natural Formation of Noboribetsu 登别市
By Happy452 - Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Today breakfast is a bit special. Breakfast in set at the Yumoto Noboribetsu Hotel where we had our dinner last night. Of course no yukata this morning but still need to sit on the tatami floor.
Hell Valley (JIGOKUDANI) 地獄谷 is our first sightseeing spot today. Very near to the hot spring town. Cloud of steams and volcanic gas coming out from the surface and filled with strong smell of sulphur. This place was the remnant of an active volcano erupted 10,000 years ago. We followed the wooden path to the end to witness the bubbling hot water every 5 minutes. Those with breathing problem better stay off the area. They have a gifts shop at the entrance. So you could wait there if you don’t want to go in.
Clouds of steams coming out from the surface.
Low-san wanted to complement us for being punctuate each time and he will bring us to a cherry orchard which is not in our itinerary 
. Eat as much as you could but no take away, please .
. Eat as much as you could but no take away, please . 
Now is the cherry season. You need to climb up a ladder to pluck the fruits. Fresh and no medicine taste at all. Yummy but choose well, some is not nice. They also have apple, pear, grapes etc but not the season yet.
Isn’t it mouth watering just looking at it?
After full stomach of cherry, we headed to our next stop to see the Ususan 有珠山 and Showa Shinzan 昭和新山. We took the ropeway up to the upper station’s observation platform and there, another gifts shop again. In Hokkaido you will not short of gifts shop at all. Once you exit from the station building, turn right was to view the Showa Shinzan and Lake Toya while to the left (quite a walk with many wide steps) was the Mt Usu’s largest crater.
Mt Usu is one of the most active volcanos in Japan and had erupted 4 times in the past 100 years with the latest eruption in year 2000. This morning, it was foggy and couldn’t see much. Whilst Showa Shinzan is a young mountain formed after earthquakes. It was named according to the Emperor Showa reign. Shinzan literally means new mountain.
Showa Shinza, view from the observation deck. To the left is the Lake Toya.
We spent an hour here and take the ropeway back to the lower station for our lunch. Gifts shops are everywhere here. Today lunch is yummy. The rice they served is fantastic 
yummy.
yummy. 
Flavoured rice with tempura. The hot pot is udon noddle with veggie. I missed the rice (bottom left). It’s very tasty. The small bowl next to it is the hot spring egg. The meat in the middle of the table is not sashimi. It’s pork to be cooked with the noodle.
We took a group photo (this is the routine thing if you followed a group) outside and next headed to the Showa-Shinzan Bear Park 昭和新山熊牧場. Biscuits are sold at the entrance for ¥100 per pack. You could feed the bear by throwing the biscuits to them. The bears will clap and waive at you to attract your attention to throw them the biscuits and they are good at catching the biscuits. Some are so lazy. Frankly, I felt sorry for all these bears. Some of the bears were locked inside cages for some reason, I guess.
Young bears. Now I only realised we did not catch any photos of the big brown bears. Oops... 
You’re right. They are not bears but inside the bear park, next to the young bears section. I believe these are the civets (貍貓).
The entrance of the park is a gifts shop especially selling souvenirs related to bear such as lighter, fridge magnet, T-shirt etc. If you find something you like, don’t hesitate as you may not find it somewhere else. I bought some horse oil cream here and I don’t see the same brand selling in other places.
After this, we visited the Lake Toya 洞爺湖. It is a big volcano caldera lake, formed by the collapsed of land due to volcanic eruption. Earlier, we had a view from the higher ground. Here you could take a helicopter ride for 8 minutes to view the whole Lake Toya. Couldn’t recall the exact price but I think it’s about ¥6,000 per head, but it’s a foggy day , so both of us choose to visit the gifts shop instead. Yes, gifts shop again. At the corner of the shop, there’s this small stall selling dry fruits. The dry grape is nice.
After this, we finished our visit of Noboribetsu and started our next journey to Hakodate 函館. Another 3 hours to reach Hokodate. Somehow, the Hokkaido trip assembles the Shanghai tour I took a few years ago. You stop at each place for a night and most of the time you are travelling in the bus. The only different was that you will be travelling after breakfast each morning in Shanghai whilst in Hokkaido, we travel in the afternoon each day after sightseeing and by the time we reached our destination will be dinner time. Of course, I prefer the latter.
Tonight, we will be staying at Hakodate Heisei-kan 平成館海羊亭飯店. There are 2 convenience stores nearby the hotel. 7-11 on the right while Lawson on the left. Both are less than 5 minutes walk. Want supper? Directly opposite Lawson is a famous ramen shop where they open till midnight.
Well, this is not the end of the day yet. We will be going to the Mt Hakodate 函館山 for the spectacular night view of the city. It is claimed one of the three best night views in the world. The other 2 places are Naples and Hong Kong. We will take a ropeway up to the summit and during the ride; you could see the spectacular scene. While we are enjoying the view and suddenly it just disappears from our eyes! 
….what happened!
….what happened! Oh no, thick fog!! Even while we are at the summit, we couldn’t see a single things except the strong winds. What a bad luck, we missed the night city view too a few years back while we are visiting Hong Kong. 
not again......
not again......
Just manage to catch this while coming back to the ground deck.
Since nothing could be seen, the gifts shop is packed with tourists. With this, we ended the day and headed back to hotel with disappointment 
21 July 2008
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