北国の秋 - Autumn in Northern Japan

[rbjhan]

Sapporo TV Tower


Hokkaido Shrine


JR Sapporo Station


Hokkaido University

 

[rbjhan]

For those familiar with my TR obviously there will be pictures of food!
Gyutan


Unagi


Uni Murakami


Sapporo Ichiryuan - Hokkaido style miso ramen, a bit too salty for me I'm afraid...


Soup curry!

 

[rbjhan]

Kokono Resort Umi no Bettei Furukawa 心のリゾート海の別邸ふる川
Only con of this ryokan is the name impossible to remember!
This is still my favourite ryokan to date, well okay with Akakura Kanko Hotel those would be my top 2.

It is about 10 mins drive from Noboribetsu Station. They don't have shuttle buses, instead will send a car to pick up guests on arrival.

Lobby


Matcha and Japanese sweets during check in


Small reading area on each floor near the lift


All rooms are on one side of the building

 

[rbjhan]

Booked the basic double room.


Massage chair!




View from balcony


No one can accuse the Japanese of not enough attention to details ever...

 

[rbjhan]

Rooms are all facing the Pacific Ocean.




Foot bath






Sunset

 

[rbjhan]

Highlight however was the onsen!
Pictures from hotel website.

 

[rbjhan]

In the afternoon there were snacks and drinks in the lounge.


Dinner




Dessert


From about 9.30pm there were also fish stew and warm red wine provided in the lounge...
Basically once you checked in it's onsen, food, rest, repeat.

 

[rbjhan]

Sunrise


Breakfast


Morning tea...

 

[rbjhan]

Service is excellent, décor is cozy, food is tasty and non stop (may or may not be a good thing), great onsen with view of the ocean, what more do you want?

Note: this ryokan really is in the middle of nowhere, no TV or wifi either, so might not be for everyone.
The famous Noboribetsu onsen town is about 10km away inland.

 

[rbjhan]

Noboribetsu onsen town 登別温泉 was not in my original plan, so how did I get there? By way of some tragic accident I’m afraid…
I made a reservation for Limited Express Hokuto 8 departing Noboribetsu station at 10.30am, the train hadn’t showed up by 11, which is most unusual in Japan! No one could tell us what happened or when was the train coming. So I changed the reservation to Hokuto 14 departing 2.47pm, put my luggage in a locker and took a bus to the famous Hell Valley of Noboribetsu.

JR Noboribetsu Station was very small, nothing to do if you get stuck here.

 

[rbjhan]

The Jigokudani or Hell Valley was quite appropriately named

 

[rbjhan]

From the valley, there were several walking trails through the hills.
About 30 mins walk, I came to Oyunuma, a sulfurous pond. Apparently the surface temperature reaches 50 degrees.




A smaller pond nearby

 

[rbjhan]

Got back to station around 2.10pm, guess what? The people I was with in the morning were still there! Damn lucky that I went away for a few hours. Getting stuck there the whole time would not be fun...
By then we found out what happened: fatal level crossing accident near Tomakomai, sigh.




Later it was announced that Hokuto 14 was cancelled, so I switched to Hokuto 12....
Finally when I got on Hokuto 12, it was already 4.30pm, what a day!

Sunset on the train.

 

[rbjhan]

By the time I got out of JR Hakodate station, it was already 7pm! Quickly bought 2 onigiris and took a bus towards Mt Hakodate. Picture below was taken the next day.


Bus was not only cheaper than the ropeway but also started straight from the station. I wonder why there weren't more people using it.

 

[rbjhan]

Hakodate is best known for the spectacular views from Mount Hakodate.
Named as Japan's three best night views together with the views from Nagasaki's Mount Inasa and Kobe's Mount Rokko.

 

[rbjhan]

It was windy and freezing cold up on Mt Hakodate though, I lasted about 30 mins and ran away...

Dinner at an Izakaya near the station.

 

[rbjhan]

There were quite a few business hotels near JR Hakodate Station, booked Comfort Hotel based on some very good reviews. However this turned out to be the only one I didn’t like the whole trip. Yikes. Nothing terrible, just generally not up to the standard, oh and the fact that there’s only one super slow lift!

 

[rbjhan]

My time in Hakodate was half a day short of what was planned, so Fort Goryokaku was cut...Went to Motomachi the next morning.
Hachiman zaka


Russian Orthodox Church


Overlooking the port area

 

[Hvr]

Having been to Sapporo a couple of times I am certainly enjoying your TR and the photos. Thanks and please keep posting the photos.

They're great.

 

[rbjhan]

Next up the (then) newly opened Hokkaido Shinkansen.
In theory the Shinkansen was through to Hakodate, but the actual station Shin Hakodate Hokuto
新函館北斗駅 was nowhere near JR Hakodate station, bah
So after 30 mins on a very tightly packed local train, I finally saw the real Hokkaido Shinkansen...



And a few hours later, arrived at Morioka.