McGregor Musings: Hell valley and old Tokyo

We chose breakfast from the hundreds of choices at 7/11,

and ate it in Sendai Park, next door to our hotel, which just happens to have a geyser which erupts with flumes of water every 3 hours; plus giant weapons for the mythical demons.

Then the must-see location in Noboribetsu - Jigoku-dani (hell valley) - 11 hectares of geysers, steaming springs and blowholes. The smell wasn't as bad as we had expected, but the sight was extraordinary.

On a hike around the mountain we looked down on hell valley and on Oyunama pond.

There are very few gaijin (non south-east Asian foreigners) in Hokkaido outside of ski season, but on this hike we met an Australian couple travelling for 3 months around Japan in the campertruck he has built himself and had shipped over! Definitely a retirement possibility for Hamish - but will his Camry station wagon be up to it?

For a change of pace we headed for Noboribetsu Date Judaimura - an 'old Tokyo town' (previously known as Edo) set in the Edo/Tokugawa period (1603 - 1868), 250 years of peace and seclusion from the outside world during which Tokyo grew from a tiny fishing village to the world's biggest city. Why build this in Hokkaido rather than in Tokyo? Because the land is cheaper, and because when many of the samurai were disenfranchised in the second half of the 19th century, they moved to Hokkaido and tried to recreate the Edo period they were used to.

We loved the historical information about life in this period and the details about the Ninjas, but most of all we loved the live shows - the visuals effects of the ninja show and the lively fun of the Oiran (courtesans) show.

Back at Sendai Park Hamish spotted another native Australian - this Eclectus parrot - and it's owner was very happy to introduce him.

Time to read our Psalm for today, so sitting down with hell valley before us we read Psalm 56:

in God I trust and am not afraid. What can man do to me?

... You have delivered me from death

and my feet from stumbling,

that I may walk before you in the light of life.

While we read, we drank our $2.50 drinks from 7/11:

The Minister for Culinary Exploration looked for Hokkaido's famous ramen, but we had to settle for another delicious BBQ, this time without the hot coals, but we did have bibs!