Heaven & Hell - July 10

We roused ourselves for a full-on, delicious Japanese breakfast: rice, miso soup, cold cooked salmon, sweet beans, salad and various pickled veggies.  We could see  the beach from our window and how they were already almost done laying out that morning’s kombu seaweed harvest on large, flat expanses of gravel to dry.  

By the time we hit the road, the marine layer had lifted enough that we could see it shaping up to be a sunny day.  It was so lovely to have some visibility, especially for the coastal drive to come.  We made a stop there at the cape near our hotel for a very nostalgic view for me.  Then we struck out on the long, winding but very beautiful road along the coast flanking a sparkling sea.  Our meanderings took us through villages and towns, and expanses of quiet coastline where much of the time, the foothills came right down to the water’s edge.  As we continued, there was a more expansive feel with big sky.  We passed lots of horse farms where thoroughbreds were being raised.  It was all just so lush and beautiful and almost magical.  And not unlike western Washington, in many ways.  

About four in the afternoon, we took a break at the village of Shiraoi to see an Ainu museum/village called Poroto Kotan.  At the little souvenir shops outside the entrance, the sales women descended on us in hard-sell mode which was a shock after the Japanese-style soft-sell we’d been accustomed to.  We managed to escape without purchasing more than a small book marker.  The village contained homes in the old thatched style that you could poke your head into and see how people lived and worked.  There was also a staged demonstration of music and dance that we got in on the tail end of.

From there it was a short drive to Noboribetsu Onsen (Hot Springs) where we would spend the night.  After settling into another lovely little Japanese-style hotel, we decided to go exploring as the evening was still young and we’d been doing nothing but sitting in the car all day.  We found our way to a place Noboribetsu is famous for, known as Jigokudani (Hell Valley).  It’s an area of raw-looking, exposed earth where hot mineral water bubbles up and steam vents billow.  It’s quite impressive to see all this inner-earth drama spilling onto the surface.  Then after a couple of bowls of ramen in town, we called it a night.