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withabackpackandcamera · 7 years

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Friday, April 21st, 2017

Day 3: Exploring The Volcanic Area of Lake Toya

This morning, I woke up because someone forgot to turn off the heater and it was scorching hot in the room. Sighs. Anyhow, I got up and used this opportunity to take one more dip in the onsen and did so for about 30 minutes. While down there, I chatted with a gentleman from Singapore who I saw last night as well. Just a nice, chill morning chat about our respective travels.

After the dip, it was time to clean up and get some breakfast downstairs before heading out. For breakfast, we had seaweed, salmon, egg, squid, rice, tofu, soft daikon, and potato salad. And with a couple savory meals in a row, I found myself missing my sweet breakfasts.

Once we were finished with breakfast and packed and ready to go, we were one the road once again. Our first stop was the Shin-Noboribetsu Bridge, the highest bridge in Hokkaido. Here, Cynthia and I just strolled over the bridge while catching up about our respective adventures the last few months.

Next, we drove to Lake Toya and the little town of Toyako.We drove around for a bit before finally finding the visitor center we needed to find to figure out what to do and see in the area. At the center, while the others were figuring stuff out, I walked around to read up on the area and its geological history. Pretty neat history, especially with all of the volcanic activity in the area. As soon as the others figured out what we would be doing next, we all headed out to find the trailhead for a short hike to some craters in the area, the Tamachan and Yu-Kim craters.

When we were done hiking and looking around at the crater lakes, we headed back to town to grab lunch at Boyotei, a European-like place known for its Hamburg Steak dish. So that’s what I ended up getting and it was good and a nice refreshing taste for my taste buds. Oh, and I life-hacked the tea at the restaurant to make oolong milk tea with the ingredients ont he table. Score! And before driving off to another area, we strolled along the lake, with Cynthia and I enjoying a beautiful walk while catching up and enjoying the view of the gorgeous, far-off Mt. Youteizan.

We next visited Ukimido Park, a park on the other side of the lake. We stopped here in an effort to find the Turtle Rocks that was mentioned on a poster I saw at the visitor center earlier. No luck. But we did find a cool, red shrine that we took a look at before spending time skipping rocks on the lake and then heading out to our next destination.

Back on the road, we drove around the lake and through the countryside while watching Mt. Youteizan get bigger and bigger in front of us. This mountain was pretty neat because it was an isolated peak in the middle of the plains. As we continued on and the evening arrived, I found myself falling asleep yet again, only waking up later by the stopping of the car in the parking lot of our hotel for the evening: Hotel Nord Otaru. It didn’t take long to get ourselves up to our room and settled before heading down again to look for dinner. After walking through the dark streets of Otaru for awhile, we finally found a sushi kaiten place worth eating at. And that we did. Eat. And by the end of dinner, there were tons of plates piled high, evidence of our great eating efforts. And despite being cheap, the sushi was delicious and definitely hit the spot! Delicious and cheap sushi for the win!

Before long, everyone hit a food coma and we all headed back for what I knew would be a great night’s rest. Goodnight and see ya tomorrow, Otaru!

5 Things I Learned Today:

1. Japanese people, for the most part, eat a savory breakfast. At least that’s what I though eating my breakfast at the ryokan. Maybe it just because we paid a lot for a savory, traditional Japanese breakfast.

2. Noboribetsu has lots of devils around town. As in statues. And it’s probably because Hell Valley is there. Get it? Hell. Devils. Haha.

3. Eating fermented soybeans is like eating weird beans wrapped in never-ending stringy spider webs. Annoying as heck.

4. In a sushi kaiten restaurant, different plate colors represent different prices for sushi dishes.

5. 3-star hotels in Japan are quite nice. Way better than 3-star ones in the United States. By a long shot.

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