Aloha Sapporo! Visiting Noboribetsu

Here's all you get to cover up at an onsen. Cel phone shows scale.

Many Japanese people visit the spa town of Noboribetsu, Hokkaido’s most famous hot spring resort, so we thought we should do the same. Noboribetsu is a haven for onsen fanatics, since the hot springs in this town produce 11 types of thermal waters, each having its own set of healing properties.

Each of the hotels in this area have their public baths set up differently, as well, so you will often see people “onsen hopping,” as we did, to see what the baths are like. Most times if you’re a guest at a hotel, you can go to the bath for free; visiting another hotel incurs an admission fee. Oh, um, by the way: we’re all buck naked in these public baths. (Sorry, no cameras allowed in these places, so I can’t show you everything.)

Hotels tend to be expensive here since it is a very tourist-oriented town. The cheapest hotel we could find was the Noboribetsu Manseikaku, at $200 a night (click here to see how our room looked). The one we wanted to stay in, with 29 different baths, was the Daiichi Takimotokan — but that was $400 per night. You’ll find a small shopping street with stores that offer all kinds of regional souvenirs; there’s also a bear park just above the town, but we couldn’t bring ourselves to go (we were told Westerners would find it disturbing). Most importantly, the food is good, as you will see:

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Noboribetsu (1 of 32)

Noboribetsu is often referred to as "Hell's Belly" due to the geyser action, causing many huge pockets of steam and, subsequently, sulphuric aroma. There are demons all over the town to symbolize this nickname.

Those were just the highlights of our time in Noboribetsu. If you want to see the rest of my photos, click here. Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and Instagram @Melissa808, or Laurie @Konaish!

Remember the talking statue from my gallery? Here’s the performance. It was actually five minutes long, but I cut it to spare you the wait.

Next: Visiting Asahikawa and discovering that there is stuff to do there, despite what people say!

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