Noboribetsu

Hokkaido, Japan · Mountain, Town / small city

Hokkaido's most famous hot-spring town, set beside the volcanic Jigokudani valley, with sulfur fumaroles and up to nine distinct types of hot-spring water.

The essentials

Getting there

Train + bus — JR train to Noboribetsu Station (about 1h-1h30 from Sapporo by limited express) then a roughly 15-minute bus ride to the onsen town; direct buses from Sapporo also run (about 1h45).

What it is genuinely strong in

♨️ Onsen / Ryokan🛌 Pure relaxation

Frequently asked questions about Noboribetsu

What to do in Noboribetsu: 23 activities

• Jigokudani (Hell Valley) 1 h must-see

  An 11-hectare volcanic crater with steaming sulfur vents and boiling pools that supply hot-spring water to the whole town.

• The nine waters trail 5 h must-see

  Noboribetsu is the only spa town in Japan with nine distinct water types in one village, sulphurous, ferrous, saline, alum, acidic, fed by the Jigokudani at some ten thousand tonnes a day. They call it the department store of onsen, and several hotels allow day bathing, so you can compare them in an afternoon.

• Upopoy, National Ainu Museum and Park 4.5 h must-see booking Shiraoi · 25 min

  It is in Shiraoi, not Noboribetsu, twenty-five minutes away by local train. Japan's only national museum devoted to the Ainu people, opened in 2020 on the shore of Lake Poroto: an exhibition narrated in the first person by Ainu, a reconstructed village of cise houses, live music and dance, and embroidery and cooking workshops. Entry 1,200 yen with advance booking, closed Mondays. Worth knowing that the grounds include a memorial holding Ainu remains exhumed by Japanese universities and still not returned, and that some Ainu criticise the project for leaning folkloric.

• Bathing at a Ryokan Onsen 1.5 h

  The town's ryokan draw water directly from Jigokudani; many, like Dai-ichi Takimotokan, let day visitors pay to use their baths without staying overnight.

• Day bathing at the Dai-ichi Takimotokan 2.5 h

  The village's great historic bath, fed by five different springs across a huge hall of pools with windows over the Jigokudani. It is one of the best modern indoor baths in Japan, and the price drops from four in the afternoon.

• Lake Kuttara 2 h

  An almost perfectly circular crater lake seven kilometres from the village, with some of the clearest water in Japan and no natural outlet and not a single building on its shore. The road closes in winter.

• Noboribetsu Hell Festival 3.5 h only the last weekend of August

  On the last weekend of August, a parade of the Great King Enma along the main street with demon dances, a diabolical mikoshi and taiko. It is the village's big annual event and it makes full use of its infernal iconography.

• Bear Park and Mt. Kuma Ropeway 2 h

  A ropeway to the top of Mt. Kuma, with a park of semi-wild Hokkaido brown bears and a small museum on Ainu culture. An honest ethical warning: this is an enclosure of brown bears in captivity, with documented criticism. The NGO Wild Welfare, after inspecting Japanese bear parks, describes bare concrete pits with minimal enrichment, overcrowding, injuries, lethargy and begging behaviour brought on because visitors buy food to throw to the animals, which also sets off fights between them. The ropeway and the view over Lake Kuttara from the summit do have value of their own and can be enjoyed without going into the pits; to see bears, the alternative is watching them wild and at a distance from a boat in Shiretoko.

• Cape Chikyu 2.5 h

  It is in Muroran, a different municipality, about twenty minutes by car: 100-meter cliffs with a lighthouse over the Pacific. The name, Cape of the Earth, comes from the fact that on clear days you can make out the curvature of the horizon.

• Hell ramen 1 h

  Local ramen with graded levels of spiciness, playing on King Enma and the Jigokudani. It is the village's own specialty beyond ryokan kaiseki.

• Hiyoriyama viewpoint 1 h

  An active volcanic cone 377 metres high above Oyunuma, with views of the thermal lake, the Jigokudani and, on clear days, the Pacific.

• Karurusu Onsen 4 h booking

  It does belong to the municipality, about eight kilometres inland. Its water is simple, very soft and low in minerals, the opposite of the sulfur of the Jigokudani, with a tradition of prolonged therapeutic bathing and a rural, quiet atmosphere.

• Muroran seafood and Shiraoi beef 1.5 h booking

  The surrounding area supplies what the spa town lacks: the port of Muroran, with seafood from Uchiura Bay, and Shiraoi wagyu, one of Hokkaido's historic beef brands.

• Noboribetsu primeval forest 1.25 h

  A protected forest fifteen minutes on foot from the village, designated a natural monument, with beeches and oaks and a quiet trail. It is the part of Noboribetsu almost nobody visits.

• Oyunuma River Natural Footbath 0.7 h

  A stretch of the stream flowing down from Lake Oyunuma cools just enough for a foot soak, along a wooden walkway through the forest.

• Sagiriyu, the village public bath 1 h

  The only public sento in Noboribetsu, with two kinds of water for 500 yen. This is where residents bathe, not hotel guests.

• Sengen Park and its geyser 0.6 h

  A small park in the middle of the village whose geyser erupts roughly every three hours, throwing up steam and hot water. It is free and right on the street: a good pause between baths.

• Date Jidaimura Theme Park 2.5 h

  A recreated Edo-period village with actors playing samurai and ninja, shows, and streets styled after feudal Japan. It is a historical re-enactment theme park, with ninja and theatre shows and period costume rental: entertaining, but not genuine historic heritage.

• Gokuraku-dori street 1 h

  The spa town's only shopping street: onsen pudding, steamed sweets, demon souvenirs and statues of protective oni dotted around the village.

• Illuminated Night Walk Through Jigokudani 0.5 h

  Part of the Jigokudani trail is lit up at night in season, giving the valley a different mood than the daytime visit.

• Lake Oyunuma 0.7 h

  A grayish, sulfurous lake near boiling point, the source of much of the town's hot-spring water.

• Nightly Enma Show 0.3 h

  In front of the Enma-dō shrine, a large animatronic statue of the Buddhist king of hell comes to life several times each night with lights and sound.

• Noboribetsu Marine Park Nixe Aquarium 1.5 h

  A Danish-castle-shaped aquarium near Noboribetsu Station, with penguins, seals and cold-water fish from Hokkaido. The same caveat applies: it works very well for a day out with children, but it includes shows with cetaceans in captivity, a practice increasingly called into question.

What only happens on specific dates

• Noboribetsu Hell Festival the last weekend of August

Chains well with

More destinations in Hokkaido