HOKKAIDO [A Travelogue] - limwhow & SereneXMM

[limwhow]

... kena stuck at the Souvenir shop... :bsmilie:

Again, as so very often while travelling, we found ourselves walking past a very nice little souvenir shop on our way back up to the Hell Valley and guess what?
Yupe... we kena stuck there for a short while...

But ok lah... that was what Free and Easy was all about, right?
You were Free to roam and Free to drag your time.
And you were Free to make it Easy for yourselves, but not so Easy for the tour guide lor... hehehe...

Still, it was a good stop, for the Grandparents found what they had been looking for for the longest time - their favourite Japanese chopsticks!

[Translation: "Ei! This is the Japanese chopstick that we have been looking for!" exclaimed the Grandfather.]

Now the following was a true story...

The big brother had a couple of Prague Crown coins in his pocket from his recent trip and he actually mistakenly passed one 500 Crown to the Japanese store-keeper, thinking that it was a 500yen coin.
It was after a while later that the store keeper ran out with the Prague coin laughing!
I think the 500 Crown was most probably worth slightly lesser than the 500yen!
Luckily she never lost money due to his mistake! Hahaha...

 

[limwhow]

Finally, Jigokudani the Hell Valley 地狱谷.

Now, I am sure many of us here in the forum who have been to Jugokudani before would be very familiar with the road leading up to its entrance.
And you all would also remember seeing these two giant statues who were the protective deities flanking the one single shrine which had been erected there since 1000 years ago.
The original statues had been replaced with these two newer ones and the wrathful appearance apparently only worked for devils and evil beings... they didn't work for these children! Hahaha...

See.. the young man even held up his hand-made wooden revolver against the deity. Goodness!

And here.. did we see some signs of fear on the girls' faces?!
Not really....

 

[newnikon]

Thank you again for sharing. And i am so amazed by your memory! Ps keep them coming.

 

[limwhow]

Jigokudani & the Onsen Hotels

A few may wonder what this Hell Valley place is.
Jigokudani is essentially and literally a valley of volcanic activities with streams of hot spring, sulphurous steam vents leading deep down the crust, and the constant supply of hot spring water to the onsen industry around Noboribetsu's famed Onsen Street.
Many Onsen hotels (mega ones) and Onsen Ryokan (small ones) have sprung up around the springs.
Visitors are spoilt for choices indeed, and those who come with family and children would usually find themselves staying in the bigger ones with more choices of facilities, while the couple there for a romantic get-away would usually bunk into the small, but more personalised Ryokans that served no less magnificent traditional Japanese meals.

Initially I was also planning to book a small family-run Ryokan for the more personalised service but after some consideration, decided not to for the following reasons:

• this is the first time we were there. And I think it would probably be better to play it safe to go with the bigger boys for this time.
• the bigger onsen hotel offered us buffet style breakfast and buffet style dinner with, I heard, plenty of crabs and Japanese food... we all liked the sound of that.
• we also managed to get two big Japanese-style rooms, sleeping on tatami-ed floors which, I thought, would be quite an experience for the children.
• and... with food and stay and all the onsen you can use, for all 7 of us, it came up to 105,000yen (S$1650) per night. For the experience, it was certainly worth while!

Apologies for the digression.
So... on with Jigokudani!

 

[limwhow]

Thank you for updating! And like all good things, it's too short! Lol, J/k.
Take your time, all of us here are looking forward to the next instalment.

Haha.. thank you JadeIceGreen. Will continue to try our best!

Thank you again for sharing. And i am so amazed by your memory! Ps keep them coming.

newnikon, thank you for coming by my thread and thank you for being so amazed! .
You know me too well lah, don't you? I am a person who uses his brain for nothing good but all the other useless stuffs lah...! Hehehe...

 

[newnikon]

You will live a long life!! And a happy one at that!! Hahaha....:thumbsup:

 

[limwhow]

地獄谷 (地狱&#35895

When I searched ClubSNAP for pictures of Hokkaido, I have come across many many photos of Jigokudani by all the very established photographers here on the forum.
And as I viewed their works I began to, not only be humbled by the quality of their photographs, but also to discover that Jigokudani presented itself with very different colours during different seasons of the year.

In autumn, the foliage would be a roaring mixture of multitudes of colours.
And now, as we wandered into its belly in the depth of winter, it displayed its yellow on a background of streaks of snowy white.

Some review had mentioned that Jigokudani could be done in half and hour to one hour's time. But I beg to differ. The wonderful thing about Jigokudani was, one could take a good nice nature walk in any of the several trails, and each trail could take anything from 15 minutes to 1 hour, depending on how much time one took to appreciate its surrounding beauty.
Here, during winter, some of the trails were not accessible. And several were piled with slippery ice... and we happened to be walking along one of these.

Here, a mere record shot of the steam arising from the depth of the valley... a composite of two photos taken by SereneXMM.

... and stopping to appreciate the wonders of Nature...

This was another one of the many record shots of the beautiful valley.
The only difference between this record shot and the many other record shots was the presence of ourselves! Haha... here we could just make out the three children and I walking along the trail, giving some perspective to the whole landscape - of course, another shot by SereneXMM.

 

[limwhow]

Walking down to view the Medicine Buddha Shrine やくしゆにゆらい　药师如来

Not far from the top of the vantage point, we came to a small little out-pouching on the right side. Walking down brought us to a very interesting small little shrine at the edge.

It was the shrine dedicated to the Medicine Buddha. Apparently the history goes that there was a scholar who's Mother eye disease was cured by washing with the spring water, and as a gesture of gratitude, he built the shrine here in respect of the Medicine Buddha.

Haha... the girls were up to their mischievous no goods again..!

Huh??!! You see fish, AhLi XMM??!!! You are talking nonsense!
Must be all the fumes... you suffering from sulphur poisoning, my dear girl?!

Looking afar, we could see this small little landmark, a milestone of some sort.
Apart from the two lower words which meant 'Hell', I couldn't make the H*ll out of what the topmost word was...

 

[limwhow]

The Bubbling hot spring source..

Any one walking along the main trail of the Valley would eventually arrive at this boardwalk which led straight to the belly of the valley where there was a tiny little fenced-up enclosure.

Right in the middle was a most interesting sight. A bubbling spring!

All of us surrounded the source and stared in sheer amazement as it spewed boiling water and heavy, pungent, odiferous steam!

Well, I believe if I were to sprinkle a little of this water onto the children, their disease of mischief would certainly be cured. Too bad I couldn't reach deep enough for some of the magical potion.. haha...
Maybe if I asked around... I might find some of the souvenir shops selling these in bottles... :bsmilie:

 

[limwhow]

Enjoying the Boardwalk...

I could say that we were all enjoying the Boardwalk, each in our own special way...
The elder sister in her own anti-fume fashion...

The Grandfather seemingly lost in his own reverie... in the deep comfort of his very own set of anti-fume mask...

... Here was yet another very difficult-to-capture shot, again taken by SereneXMM.. hehehe...

It is amazing that in such a warm environment infused with the mist of suphuric spring water, permeated with the unmistakable smell of eggs at the wrong end of their expiry dates, one could still find snow flakes upon rocks...

Again by SereneXMM...

 

[andysim65]

Great picture u taken here , I was there too 1 year ago but could not have so nice picture cause snowing heavily, with picture u have taken now then I realize how beautiful this place is thanks u for sharing with us.

 

[limwhow]

Great picture u taken here , I was there too 1 year ago but could not have so nice picture cause snowing heavily, with picture u have taken now then I realize how beautiful this place is thanks u for sharing with us.

andysim65, our sincerest gratitude for coming by on this thread.
Wow... you were there in heavy snow? Then you must have had a worse time walking around than us!
But I am sure in the really really heavy snow, the atmosphere would have been magical!
Thank you once again, andysim65!

 

[limwhow]

Walking the Trails of Jigokudani

(by SereneXMM on the Nex5)

Honestly, not one of us knew what to expect at the Hell Valley.
Yes, we knew we were going to see lots of steam, stream, wooden beams and such.
But how it was going to be like inside the valley and how to go about walking there we were all ignorant of.
The big brother was leading the way this time.

"Papa, which way to turn now?" He asked, when he came to a divide in front.​

"Aaah... the right trail looked too long and too far already. It says here it would take one hour to walk. I replied. "We'll take the shorter left side trail."​

Luckily we did that. For it was later that we understood why in winter some of the trails were not passable - because of the slippery ice on the tracks.

Here, there was already initial tell-tale signs of slippery track, as the sister looked back with disbelief in our choice of road.

Here, the photo shown below, was our last respite before the downhill walk... and it happened that at this point in time, the snow got heavier, and to my inexperience eyes and senses, it felt like there was both snow and rain at the same time.
Could that really be so? Snow and rain simultaneously?
I really don't know. I'm a total newbie. And I gladly await any of our experienced CS members to enlighten me in this.

To those who were experienced in all things Winter, we could already see that the ground was pretty pretty slippery.. haha...

Well... now the snow and rain gotten heavy enough, to the extent that even the gung-ho big brother scrambled to put on his outer-wear!
Haha... cannot be too hero in the snow lah...

(by SereneXMM on the Nex5)

Happy in the thought that we were on our way back to the hotel to a nice, warm soak in the onsen, the family marched on...

 

[limwhow]

Downhill all the way... on a rope...

What came right after was really fun.
It reminded us of long time ago when we had The Big Splash in East Coast Parkway where every one just slided down full speed ahead.
Only thing is here, there was some kind-hearted Japanese soul who stringed a series of ropes on some trees to prevent free-fall.
This was the one time when we realised that even the Shoe Stoppers didn't help that much... the inclination of the slope and the melted ice was the perfect formula for some sore bums!

It was so fun that even when SereneXMM looked at her photos with all the motion blur and realised that all CMI, she couldn't stop laughing and laughing...
... all while being drenched totally wet in rain and snow.
Luckily hers was Gortex material.
So she was perfectly dry inside...

What a walk it was!
Unforgettable.

 

[limwhow]

But as always, we made it back to the shed at the bottom of the hill laughing our stomachs out.
Even the Grandparents were having a swell time.
Who could've imagined 'skating' on the snow to be so much fun?!

AhLi XMM giving the Grandfather a consolation hug...

And a reciprocal pat on the shoulder from the Grandfather...

... and as I looked up and held up my camera, ready for the next shot, the Golden light of the sun suddenly came streaming through the snow and rain.
And in that instance, we were all basked in the warmth and the laughter of this most magical moment.

And my finger did what it knew best on the shutter button.
Even now as I looked at this picture and I thought back about that moment, I could still feel a sense of happiness as the emotion welled up inside me.
This, my friends, was another one of those record shots that, though technically flawed and seemingly ordinary from the surface, was still of such significance to me, for what it represented deep inside was so very meaningful.

 

[engta]

Very nice pics and narrations :thumbsup:, thanks for sharing.

 

[limwhow]

Very nice pics and narrations :thumbsup:, thanks for sharing.

engta, thank you so much for your kind words!

 

[limwhow]

The Onsen Hotel

To all our good friends here in the forum who have not slept on a tatami before, it was quite an experience, especially here in the (almost) authentic setting.

We have never stayed in a Japanese style room ever before.
So it was quite a novelty to do so. So much more apparent in the children...

For us, the initial strange feeling as we struggled to dress ourselves up in Kimono soon gave way to a feeling of disbelief as we saw our own reflection.
This Japanese-looking father tried to act chauvinistically-macho in the Japanese style...

... and I think he did look quite the part.. :bsmilie:

 

[limwhow]

The Soak in the Onsen


Excited about the Onsen... so much so that the excitement could even be seen on their faces...

Now for those of us who are so keen in going into the Onsen, yet in the typical Singapore way, very very shy about donning our birthday suits, the answer is:
Fret not, for at the end of the day one would be numb to the (supposed) initial embarrassment.
There was no other way out. Either you step in naked, or you don't go in at all.
It was so simple.
So what to do... all of us just did the unthinkable lor...

It was not without some trepidation that we all walked Kimono-ed from our rooms to the Grand Onsen, after negotiating a maze of escalators and lifts.
As always, the Onsen rules were:

• Men and Women would be separated, at least in this Hotel.
• Children below the age of 12 years old were not permitted in the Onsen for adults, unless they slipped through unnoticed.
• You would have to walk into the Onsen stark naked with only one single small piece of towel covering your vital points.
• And it was considered important to sit on a stool of the public bath to bathe and at least towel yourself clean before entering the onsen.
• And it was considered rude to splash water around while bathing, to jump into the onsen instead of walking in, and to let your towel dangle in the water for it would be already 'unclean'.
• No photography allowed... Sigh... so that is why I had no shots of the beautiful onsen.

 

[limwhow]

My Dream came true - the Onsen Soak in the Snow...

Even before arriving in Hokkaido, I was dreaming every day of soaking in the outdoor Onsen in the snow.

The Dai-ichi Takimotokan Onsens were truly magnificent. There were so many types to choose from and of various types of temperature and mineral contents.
We could vaguely make out what they were from the Kanji (Chinese words) used to label each Onsen.
Well, I must say it was the first time that the Grandfather, the Father and the Son saw each other in the nude. Was pretty hard initially trying to look away from each other.
But soon, the embarrassment was forgotten as we got very engaged in the soak.

There were a few most unforgettable few Onsen, to me.

• One was the one where we sat facing a huge ceiling to floor glass panel spanning the whole wall, giving us a panoramic view of the whole Jigokudani with the steam rising in the distance. We could even see visitors walking along the trails far away...
• The other one was the Outdoor Onsen. This was our favourite. It was darn cold outside, especially when we walked through the automatic sliding door and 'Poomp!' the cold air hit us smack right in the face and in our naked body. We had to resist the urge to run right back into the warmth of the indoor and bravely stepped into the onsen. But from there on, it was smooth sailing all the way.

Then FINALLY, the SNOW.

I was sitting there in the outdoor Onsen in the evening as the sky darkened around me.
Out of nowhere, I could feel droplets of coldness on my shoulder and face.
I opened my eyes and saw, for the first time in my life, flakes after flakes of white snow floating down from high up in the sky, making their way gently earthwards.
Just before the snow hit the water, the rising steam would meet the flakes, transform them into water droplets before letting them hit the surface of the pond...
Such a magical moment.

I simply threw all the cares away and lifted my head up... and let the snow fall upon my face again and again and again...
I'd never forget this experience.
And I would wish, in all sincerity, that all my fellow friends would be able to behold this wonderful sight when you all next arrive in Hokkaido for your Onsen.