Day 8 - Noboribestu.

Been waking up at 7am these past few days and it's making me tired. Funny thing is, I can't seem to sleep at night and I only go to bed at about 1-ish.

Today's breakfast was included with our hotel stay and we had to go down to the cafe. It was only the 2 of us though, as Uncle Pat wasn't feeling too good. Poor Uncle Pat. His back was hurting from sleeping on the futon. I on the underhand enjoyed my stay.

So anyways, here's our breakfast.

And the view that came with it.

Pretty neat huh ?

So we left the hotel at about 945am and we were going to see the Hoheikyo dam which was a 10 minute drive away. The weather didn't look too good today. As we boarded the bus, it started raining.

By then time we got there, it was raining heavily and it was extremely cold with all that wind blowing. We couldn't walk anywhere and we only had a tiny bus shelter for cover that we had to share with another tour group. Uncle Pat then said that he didn't feel well and we decided to catch the next bus down. We had to wait in the cold for about 15 minutes before the next bus arrived.

Well, here's the dam.

I would have loved to have had explore this dam. Oh wells, maybe next time.

We decided to head to our next location - 登別 ( Noboribetsu ).

The weather wasn't very kind to us today so we had to drive through the horrendous weather.

We finally arrived at 登別 after 2 hours, which wasn't too bad I guess. I dread car rides that take longer than 2 hours. But guys, don't worry about loo stops. If you're travelling on the highway, there are frequent loo stops.

I couldn't be happier seeing this welcoming giant.

So we checked into this homely inn where we were going to stay the night. Luckily for Uncle Pat, they had the western room available when my mum called this morning. I don't think he can survive one more night sleeping on the futon.

The first thing I usually do when I step into a hotel room is check out the toilet and I panicked when I couldn't find a shower area. When I told my mum, she was shocked too and so she went to ask the staff. They then told us that to shower, we had to go down to the onsen area. I mean like c'mon, I ain't showering in front of other people ! So friends, the next time you book your hotel stay and you are like me, make sure you check that they have a shower room in your room itself.

After settling down, we decided to go into town. The inn provided a car service that took you up the hill into town, which was a pretty neat to be honest. You have to walk back down though. But I guess it's going up that's tiring isn't it ?

Well, here's 地獄谷.

It was past lunch time and my stomach was growling. Luckily for us, we had a variety to choose from. We decided to let Uncle Pat chose and we ended up in a cafe.

I was need of my coffee fix and my mum told me to try cafe au lait and now, I am in love with it.

Hopefully, I'll be able to find this cup of awesomeness back in Singapore.

I then went on and had a melon soda after.

Had a sip and it brought me right back to my childhood days.

As for lunch, I had my favorite Japanese curry rice.

You can never go wrong with Japanese curry.

So we chilled for a little while and then went down to catch a show. The show last for about 5 minutes and yeah, if you do visit 登別, don't be too upset if you missed the time slot, because you wouldn't have had missed much. Hehe.

We then explored our surroundings before getting ourselves some soft cream.

Took a slow walk back to the inn and along the way, I took some photos of our surroundings.

Such a beautiful place. It didn't smell very pleasant though with all the sulfur and not to mention that it is swarmed by mini black flies which we were trying not to eat when we were munching on our soft cream. The most annoying thing is, it gets stuck to your coat. It's so gross.

Arrived back at the inn and we decided to have a look at their beautiful garden.

Well, earlier on, I really wanted to go visit them bears, but no one else seem interested and I wasn't going on my own, so we had to give the bears a miss this time.

Before we knew it, it was dinner time. Uncle Pat & my mum came down to my room to have dinner. I was worried that Uncle Pat would be uncomfortable with dining on the floor, but thankfully, he was alright.

Well, check out our menu for this evening.

And now, here's what we had for dinner.

Dinner was pretty good as compared to last night. The only thing was, they served each dish separately and so the poor obasan had to walk in and out of the room umpteen times just to serve us. But we all enjoyed our meal.

We all went for a night walk to our favorite Lawson and when I came back, my bed was laid out for me.

I am just going to sit here and watch telly whilst waiting for 1am to come so that I can go down to the onsen to have a shower with my mum. I had to literally beg her to accompany me earlier. I hope she doesn't change her mind.

Good night friends ! xxx