Hakodate to Noboribetsu

If Maldon is salt town (or mud town) then Hakodate is squid town…and there are many squid icons dotted about town. We mooched about and went up the ropecar, aka cable car, to see the lights of Hakodate twinkling in the night.

Have broken the back of the jet lag and slept all the way through to 6pm. A bit of a potter and then I headed to the market while Bert went to the onsen again. As you may have seen, I tried sea urchin. I ate some of it. I really couldn’t finish it. The market was fantastic – snow crabs, scallops, weird stuff, live squid, dead squid, steam-rolled squid….

Luckily, the melons are in season and I soothed my tastebuds with some really fresh melon. I bought some cherries and a perfectly round peach. Headed back to the hotel to check out and then we set off to find a Lucky Pierrot. I had spotted that they only make 20 super big burgers a day and Bert’s interest was piqued. Needless to say, his favourite meal in Japan, to date, is pictured below:

…and that wasn’t the really big one! We headed off to join the motorway to Noboribetsu. It didn’t really seem like a motorway- everyone seemed to be driving so slowly in their mini-mokes. Some of the cars resemble Postman Pat’s van. I have sent Husband pictures of Porsches I have seen in Tokyo but I am not sure where you would be able to drive more than 60mph…

We stopped off at Onuma Quasi National Park and took a swan pedallo (sp) on the beautiful lake which was full of water lilies and tiny islands. To complete the touristy visit, we had lavender ice-creams – delicious!

Arriving at Noboribetsu, we smelt the sulphur immediately. The hotel is enormous – such a contrast to last night. There was no bed in the bedroom, but then we opened a cupboard and found some mattresses and some duvets. So am writing this lying on the floor – will be good for my back.

It’s a very busy touristy town – the highlight is the baths, of which there are seven healing pools, a sauna, a steamroom and an outside hot spring pool. I kinda got it right today but there were some many different “stations” which were explained in Japanese but I just had to dip my toe in to work out how hot it was. I also surreptitiously watched what other women were doing and copied them. It is an odd thing but I think it would be good to have a mate there. But I did go in every pool so according to the guide in the room, I should have a healthier heart, no more rheumatism, beautiful skin, no women’s problems and will live longer. Gets my vote..

Dinner was a Mark Warner buffet affair but the food was so much better. I had snowcrab, langoustine tempura and beef fillet. And three types of ice cream – green tea, Cabernet Sauvignon and Hokkaido cheese. Green tea was great, the others not so.

While walking up to Hell’s Valley – which is a volcanic “park”, we were befriended by a local government official who was very friendly and wanted to take our photo. He explained there was a fireworks display at 8.30pm and to get there early – by 7.30pm- to secure a good place. We wandered up at 8.30pm and got there just as it started. It was all over in 20 minutes and consisted mainly of 6 people dressed up as Devils and holding enormous Roman candles which were set off in sequence. We were really glad that we hadn’t waited an hour…