Well
here we are. Having been collected from our hotel in Kyoto at 6:00 am
this morning for the almost two hour road trip to Kansai airport
followed by a further almost two hours flight to Chitose Airport, we
collected our little pedal car, a Toyota Vitz allegedly able to carry
five and are now settled at the Norboribetsu Grand Hotel.
The
car is flat out carrying us and our luggage but it got us here.
Collecting it was fun in that the staff member looking after us had
very little English but, fortunately a staff member with a little
more English came to our rescue. The good news is that the GPS talks
to us in English and is programmed by inserting the phone number of
our destination. Very clever.
This afternoon we explored the reason the resort town exists, the thermal area. Jigokudani apparently means Hell Valley. There is a network of tracks easily accessible from our accommodation which transverse the area.
Lake Oyunama is a seething mass of sulphurous water, apparently a source of tons of sulphur in times past.
It came as no surprise that this is a volcanic area.
An unexpected bonus today was the cherry blossom tree we found.
Before moving on to Hakodate tomorrow, we will explore the local area a little more widely by car but I suspect that what we saw this afternoon is the most interesting.
Because
it is a thermal area, each of the hotels has an onsen. I will be
exploring the one in our hotel later tonight, appropriately dressed of
course. I am fairly confident that I won't bump into anybody I know. Apparently there is an outdoor pool. Sounds great.
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