30 May 2026
After a heavenly stay in Lake Toya, we continued our road trip with a short drive to Noboribetsu.
Noboribetsu is another famous hot spring resort in Hokkaido. It is best known for Jigokudani (Hell Valley), a dramatic volcanic crater with steaming vents, and its rich variety of healing mineral waters. Hence a stay in one of the hot spring resorts is highly recommended.
Getting to Noboribetsu Onsen
Traveling by car from Lake Toya to Noboribetsu via the scenic Orofure Pass (Hokkaido Route 2) takes about 60 minutes. We made a brief stop at Sobetsu Park to have a last look down at Lake Toya and Nakajima Island before leaving Lake Toya.
The twisty road features a series of tunnels and climbs through the area. Although there were a couple of observation decks along the way, we decided not to make any stops.
A kitsune or red fox came to wish us good luck before we made the descend into the Hell Valley of Noboribetsu.
We knew we were entering Hell Valley when we saw a couple of blue demons (oni) by the side of the highway. These blue demons are local mythical guardians of the famous hot spring town of Noboribetsu. They use their thorny baseball bats, called kanabo, to protect the village from danger.
Statues of Blue Demons (Father and son) along the road leading into Noboritbetsu Onsen.
Where we stayed - Dai-ichi Takimotokan
There are several large hot spring resorts in the town and we chose to stay at Dai-ichi Takimotokan.
We chose this hotel partly for its central location and partly for the excellent reviews on their onsen and dinner buffet. The dinner buffet offers wide variety of fresh seafood and Japanese dishes, including free flow of our favourite crab legs!
Although we were early for check-in, we could leave our luggage in the hotel, and head out to explore Noboribetsu before our room is ready. The hotel provides free self-service luggage storage facilities where we could secure our suitcases using some sort of combination lock and chain. There are also lockers to store hand-carry items and small bags.
We took some time to explore the hotel’s facilities before going out for lunch.
The arcade is right next to the lobby in the Main Building of the hotel. It features shops, karaoke rooms, games rooms, bars and restaurants.
There is a giant gilded Ookanabo that is 9 meters high and weighs 10 tons. Previously (before 2023), there is a 3D mechatronic display happening at the Ookanbo at regular intervals. Not anymore.
We could see the retired dolls used in the mechatronic display at the “Okanabo History Gallery” in front of the Grand Bath building.
The hotel has both traditional Japanese style rooms and Western style room in 4 accommodation buildings (East Building, Main Building, West Building, and South Building). We chose to stay in a Western-style room with Queen bed in the East building.
Exploring Noboribetsu Onsen
One of the first things we saw in town is the face changing King Enma at a small shrine right outside our hotel. King Enma is the Lord of Hell in Buddhist folklore. After a person dies, they must stand in front of him, waiting to be judged and sent to the afterworld.
The shrine, called the Enmado, houses an animatronic King Enma. Built in 1993 for the local Hell Festival, the mechanical figure changes expressions and puts on a short dramatic show at regular intervals.
Enma - the king of the underworld.
A small crowd gathered in front of the temple a few minutes before show time. Drums play to start the performance. The explanations are in Japanese, so we could not understand what was said.
Suddenly, the friendly looking King Enma changes his look. His face turns red and gave an angry look with fangs and delivers a dramatic "hell sentencing".
The performance is short and quite anti-climatic. If not expecting too much, it was actually quite fun and amusing.
Lunch at Enmaken Ramen
Right across the Enmado Shrine is a ramen restaurant serving up spicy, fiery, “hot like hell” ramen that is worthy of King Enma.
There is a queuing system and we had to wait a while to be seated. Seats were all counter seats and we could watch the chef prepare our meal.
Their spicy ramen is supposed to be hot like hell!
A picture showing King Enma enjoying his ramen in hell.
The main ramen is enma ramen, where we could choose the spiciness level. The normal spiciness is already tongue burning good and sweat inducing.
The young chef took extra care to plate up each bowl of ramen. Crunchy elements are shaped to resemble flames and we could see the dried chillis on top. The noodles are cooked perfectly, and the soup is rich in flavour, filled with minced meat, char siu, egg, and sprouts.
Our spicy ramen from hell. Yummy and worth the wait.
Cold local beer on standby to douse the flames.
Sengen Park
After lunch, we proceed to Sengen Park. The park is located right next to our hotel.
The park is decorated with huge colourful kanabo demon clubs. 
The main attraction in the park is an active geyser that bursts into life approximately every 3 hours, blowing boiling water up to 8 meters high, gushing steam, and bellowing like a steam locomotive. We did not come at the right time to witness this.
A walk through the Valley of Hell
From Sengen Park, we followed the signage that pointed us to Hell Valley or Jigokudani (地獄谷). This is the highlight of this town and is a main source of Noboribetsu's hot spring waters. We don’t have to be bad, evil or naughty to gain entry to Hell Valley. It is free for everyone.
Formed by the eruption of Mt. Hiyori (Hiyori-yama), Jigokudani displays hot steam vents, sulphurous streams and other volcanic activity.
Boardwalks were built over the rough terrain to bring us closer to the numerous openings and fumaroles along the valley. We could see bubbling and boiling water, streams with sulphur and jagged stone formations.
Streams with sulphur deposited on the sides.
Our hotel, the Dai-ichi Takimotokan, is right next to Hell Valley.
The water in Tessen Pond is around 80°C to 90°C.
Taking the Oyunuma Nature Trail to the Oyunumagawa Natural Foot Bath.
From the valley, there are attractive walking trails through the wooded hills above Noboribetsu.
Map showing the trails in Hell Valley and Noboribetsu.
We followed the trail from Hell Valley for about 20 to 30 minutes, to get to Oyunuma, a sulphurous pond with a surface temperature of 50 degrees Celsius.
Signboards along the trails.
We saw Oyunuma from an observation deck. Oyunuma is the source of the hot water that flows through the forest for several hundred meters to a natural foot bath in the forest, known as the Oyunumagawa Natural Foot Bath.
We continued along the trail that follows the river downstream.
We soon came to the Oyunumagawa Natural Foot Bath. There are already many people soaking their feet at this place.
The water in the Oyunumagawa Natural Foot Bath is lukewarm only. It was still quite enjoyable, to soak one’s feet in the warm water and relax in the middle of a forest.
It was already near evening time when we returned to our hotel. Time for onsen in the Grand Bath.
Onsen time
The Grand Bath building in the hotel is a 1,500-square-meter bathhouse with open-air baths, health baths, and a heated pool. There are five types of mineral spring water, which is the largest in Noboribetsu Onsen, with a total of 35 baths for men and women. There are various baths with different temperatures, shapes of soaking pool, and views, including an open air bath with views of the Hell Valley itself.
Like all onsens, no photography is permitted inside.
I could snap a photo of the entrance where we could get towels for use in the grand bath. There is also swimming costume rental for those who wants to swim in the swimming pools.
I particularly enjoyed the outdoor bath with views of Hell Valley.
Buffet Dinner
The dinner buffet at the Dai-ichi Takimotokan had excellent reviews and that was one of the reason I chose to stay at this hotel.
The buffet had Japanese and Western menus that offer a wide variety of tastes, such as delicious snow crab and salmon roe, live- grilled steaks, freshly fried seasonal ingredients tempura, delicious beef stew and Hokkaido’s Genghis Khan (mongolian mutton barbecue).
Free flow of snow crabs legs, ikura and fresh seafood.
Overall, Noboritbetsu is definitely a good place to spend a day or two while in Hokkaido.