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Japan 2018: Rotten eggs and snowstorms
posted : Saturday, January 26, 2019
Woke up the next morning to a beautiful sight after overnight snow.
Sakai mode definitely still on.
Probably would have slept in (and maybe we should have) but went down for breakfast, then I decided to have another go at our suite’s onsen, and we checked out after that. *money flies away* oh well. 
Still not very nice. But got used to it.
Went for a walk after breakfast to explore the hotel and ended up here again. This time we did went in to take a look. Men's and women's areas swap around at regular intervals apparently.
Decided to have another go at room onsen, opened windows for an outdoor onsen feel lol.
Checked out!
Started the day with a short walk to Jigokudani a.k.a Hell’s Valley. It wasn’t that early when we left hotel for it so there were already throngs of tourists by the time we reach there. And yes they weren’t kidding when they say, you don’t need to know the directions, just follow the smell will do. Urgh. Sulphur really does smell like rotten eggs or actually I think hard boiled eggs smell similar to me which is why I hated hard boiled eggs. 
Good amount of snow accumulated overnight
Entrance towards Hell's Valley
Can smell it from afar
Here we are.
Steps can kill
Steps were slippery coz of all the ice and we were extra careful not to slip and make a fool of ourselves lol. Though almost got a heart attack while taking a selfie on selfie stick coz fingers were extra clumsy with gloves and when detaching phone from selfie stick, phone dropped over the ledge! Luckily it is still within reaching distance so with a bit of stretching managed to recover it whew. Otherwise probably have to add another thing to insurance claim already.
Plan was to also pop by the Oyunumagawa Natural Footbath but the path up there was closed. Literally only one path was open so we left for the shopping street after that. So that was the only attraction we visited in Noboribetsu lol - other places such as Bear Park or the Historic Village (Date Judaimura) were really too out of the way/didnt appeal to us and I don’t think we had time either considering we were planning to catch an early afternoon train to Hakodate (which we also don’t have much time at so kind of want to maximize our time there).
So ended up dropping by the Shopping Street instead.
Of course have to drop by 7-11
Lunch options weren’t much so we randomly chose a place which kind of have decent ratings and settled in.
Exterior
Had okonomiyaki. The sister had a ton don.
Went back to pick up our luggage, then short walk across the street to the bus terminal. Caught the bus back to Noboribetsu Station and it’s off to Hakodate! And totally kicking myself for not reserving seats because, the non-reserve section is full and we almost didn’t have space for luggage, not to mention seats, since Noboribetsu is already about halfway through the line carrying many passengers from Sapporo. After a few stops finally managed to get seats together at the back of the train, but had to stay awake throughout still because had to hold on to my luggage along the aisle and move it around whenever people are boarding/alighting. Oh well better than nothing. 
Exterior of Noboribetsu Station
Finally got a seat and can start feasting on snacks.
 
Snowing pretty hard along the way
Arrived in Hakodate in heavy snow! Still excited about snow at this point. We had the foresight to pick a hotel directly opposite the station so dragged our luggage through snow covered pavement to Smile Hotel Hakodate. 
Heavy snowfall
Luggage tracks
Smile Hotel. Thank god it's just across the street
First impression - completely opposite spectrum from the night before hahaha. Budget no frills hotel, still decent size although we had our first taste of Japanese prefab toilets. To think we are only beginning to do PPVC while Japanese have been doing this for ages (though it looks like they only do this for toilets, and for some reason they must be really small. I mean why can’t prefab toilets be bigger?). And furniture are really dated, they have this really small heating pan which comes with a small metal mug which you can use to boil water, and it’s built into the desk. The bedside table had a clock and I think alarm/radio controls built into it? The windows also open into the neighbouring building. Hahah. But we are only here to sleep so yea whatever.
Room, which we joked that it was the size of our toilet the night before. Hahahah
Mini prefab toilet which I kept banging into things.
Rested a bit and head out! No time to lose. To the Kanemori Red Brick Warehouse we go.
Tram to Jiujigai
Here we are
I think this place used to be port warehouse now converted into a shopping mall-ish place (sorry didn’t read up too much on it, my assumptions). Reached at about 5.30pm, and most of the shops are closing at about 7 so just not much time, walk around for a bit till the stores close, then head to dinner.
Popping by one of the warehouses
Dropped by Lucky Pierrot for dinner. 
Apparently this is Hakodate’s homegrown fast food chain and it’s not bad actually.
With sun setting early it always feel like we have spent some time outdoors at night and should be heading back soon but really really it’s only like 8. Doesn’t help that there are very few people on the streets after nightfall so yea. Anyway spotted gram pancakes on our way earlier and already decided to have that for dessert so duly head over. But turns out they have very limited quantities of their siganature fluffy pancakes so we didn’t get to try. Though good fun eavesdropping at our neighboring table’s conversations on their travel plans (they are Malaysian Chinese lol) and comparing with ours. 
gram cafe
Chocolate and orange always go well together!
Headed back after dessert and instead of taking tram the sister persuaded me to walk back. Yea it’s not that far (about 1km or so?) but still? In the wind, and snow? Noooot sure about that combi. But grudgingly trudge along. And survived.
Inspired by another traveler so copied.
And that’s it for Day 2!
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