Summer Hokkaido Day 3-4: Jozankei Onsen & Otaru Canal
Travel · Published 7/15/2024 ·
The Sapporo TV Tower — you can spot it from pretty much anywhere in the city. This is day three in Sapporo. The weather was clear, and the rain that had been coming down through yesterday had finally stopped. It was actually kind of hot…
There’s this little mascot figure halfway up the TV Tower… pretty cute. It’s even holding a flower.
I’d had quite a lot to drink the night before, so I went for some ramen to nurse the hangover. I picked something udon-ish, and the verdict was: really good. But that kimchi, though… it tasted like it had been tossed in cho-gochujang and then finished off with a hit of wasabi. I just… could not get used to that flavor.
A clean, refreshing meat-broth base with a nice spicy kick.
This was a convenience store inside the underground mall that connects to the basement level of Odori Park… After I finished eating, there was nowhere to dump the leftover broth and scraps, so I fumbled my way through asking, and the staff happily took the trash off my hands. Japan is so kind everywhere you go — I loved that about it.
Heading back out and making my way toward the bus stop for Jozankei, where we’d decided to go today… After the ramen, the weather had gotten even nicer. But then… we missed the direct bus — the one with the kappa painted on it — and ended up taking a local bus that stopped at every single stop… an hour and a half all the way to Jozankei. The hangover hit me hard, and… ugh. Japanese buses are big, but I don’t know if that means there are actually more seats inside — the gap between the seats in the back was so tight that my knees were pressed against the seat in front. There was almost no legroom. The locals didn’t look all that small either, so I wondered if they just put up with it in silence… Anyway, after a long ride, we got off the bus.
The hot spring hotel we’d been trying to go to… Let me cut to the chase: it doesn’t open until 3 p.m. We’d asked around 1. The person at the counter, seeing that we were foreigners who didn’t speak much Japanese, called two or three other hot springs to find one that would let us in. I was genuinely grateful.
It felt like a whole district had been developed around an area where hot spring water keeps bubbling up. The streets looked old, but they were clean.
Google Maps is such a lifesaver of an app. Especially abroad… We found our way there just fine.
The entrance to the ryokan we visited… We didn’t stay overnight, just used the hot spring. Man… I still can’t get used to that entrance. There was some kind of weird mask? hanging up, with lanterns on either side… But the inside was spotless, and they had some kind of incense burning, so my body and mind both relaxed. During the attendant’s instructions, I also got to hear the original pronunciation of “slipper.” Su-ri-ppa~
The hot spring spans two buildings connected by an elevated bridge. I couldn’t take photos of the other areas, but this is the view looking out from the bridge. When I was a kid I watched the Evangelion anime over and over… and it’s just wild to me that the countryside scenery, the streets that look like they came straight out of that show, exist exactly like that here. My first-ever open-air bath was more than enough to melt the fatigue away. Most of the baths were kept at a set temperature, but I got to touch the water as it actually came out — it was over 100°C. There was a sulfur smell, too… It wasn’t a top-tier hot spring or anything, but even so, the tiredness washed right off.
[Jozankei Onsen
Jōzankei Yunomachi, 4-chōme, Jōzankeionsennishi, Minami Ward, Sapporo, Hokkaido 〒061-2303, Japan
](#)
Coming out the entrance, we had a good 40 minutes until the bus, so we grabbed a snack.
Apple pie and soft-serve ice cream… I had to eat the ice cream the second I got it, so there’s no photo. Then it was back to Sapporo… again? Another hour and a half on a local bus. The Japanese version of the bus driver’s “We’ll now be departing~” has exactly the tone and volume to lull you to sleep… and the rain was drizzling, too… with my body all drowsy and heavy.
It rained… it was cold… and I’d come dressed wrong, assuming it was summer. But Sapporo in the evening drops to single-digit temperatures cold enough to see your breath, while during the day it can climb to 30°C. Functional clothing and a windbreaker were absolute must-haves — and since I’d failed to pack them, I ended up buying one. I got the tax refund and still, it cost me 300,000 won. T_T The North Face guy at the shopping center by Sapporo Station was really kind, gave great recommendations on sizing, and spoke English well, too. The whole trip… I kept realizing just how much my English needs work.
I bought a ticket to head to Otaru Station. You take a train? subway, and as you ride along, you travel down the coastal railway and arrive in Otaru.
The plaza in front of Otaru Station, where the vehicles turn around. A quiet little countryside town… but still a bit of a downtown. It’s a very old port city, with tons of buildings over 100 years old.
Scenery that looks like it’s straight out of a comic book just pours out in front of you.
Otaru Station, shot while crossing the street… Most photos out there are of Sapporo or Otaru in winter, but I’m bringing you Otaru in the height of summer.
A narrow-gauge railway line, no longer in use but turned into a park…
After dropping our bags at the lodging, we wandered around looking for somewhere to eat, and ended up going into a restaurant that a local had recommended with a quick “oishii yo~~” as they passed by.
Water, a hot towel, and chopsticks came out, all neatly arranged.
I didn’t get a photo of the sushi menu. We ordered sushi that ran about 1,500 yen. For drinks, we got Otaru — two glasses…
It was so smooth and tasty that I tried to buy it again at a supermarket, but in the end I couldn’t find it.
Sake… refined rice wine, that is. It was good — smooth, and not too low in alcohol, so it did plenty to bring out the flavor of the food.
Sushi in Otaru, the very setting of “Sushi King”… hehe. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water. Even thinking back on it now, the sushi was moving. The friend traveling with me said it was the best sushi they’d ever had.
A curious egg sushi…
But here’s the thing — the sushi portions are small. Just because it’s Japan doesn’t mean sushi goes for ramen prices. It’s expensive even for the locals to eat. hehe. Just like we Koreans can’t eat galbijjim every day… at most we’d have bibimbap or kimchi stew daily… well, that’s just how it is, so we picked up some cup noodles at the market and are having a second round back at the lodging.
Japanese writing I couldn’t make sense of… but true to the land of ramen, surprisingly it was all perfectly edible.
An Airbnb run out of a remodeled building about 150 years old… We were on the top floor, in a tidy room where you could see right up into the gabled roof. It can sleep up to five, but with just the two of us it was completely comfortable.
The next morning… a neighborhood scene where you’d half expect Evangelion Unit-01 to come barreling past on the right… B-but… it’s hot? Yesterday it was cold enough that I bought a windbreaker…?? Ugh…
Just an ordinary Japanese countryside scene, with the old architectural style preserved exactly as it was…
On most of the roads there isn’t a single one of those cigarette butts you see everywhere, not even any loose gravel…
The Otaru Canal… I had no idea whether it was the main canal or a smaller one and just went “huh, okay”… only to find out later — that was the main canal.
Beyond that is the Pacific… and since it’s on the east side of Korea, that makes it the East Sea!
It’s a canal, but maybe because they pulled in seawater, it didn’t really smell and was perfectly pleasant.
And… it was hot… really hot… It was a little chilly in the morning, and then… hot…
I took this because the reflection looked great. The Otaru Canal…
And then we turned into the old shopping street… Everything you think of when you hear “Otaru” was all gathered there. The music box hall and so on…
This post is getting long, so I’ll wrap it up here and write more in the next installment…
There’s a lot of scenery here that, if I’d come 20 years ago, would’ve had me going “wow~~.” But these days you see plenty of spots where Korea has not only caught up but actually pulled ahead. People say winter Otaru is so gorgeous… but midsummer Otaru is nice and cool too, so it seems like a great place to visit to beat the heat.
Thank you.
#SummerSapporo #SummerHokkaido #SummerOtaru #SushiKing #OtaruSushi #OtaruCanal #OtaruStation #OgenkiDesuka #HokkaidoOnsen #JozankeiOnsen #KappaRider
Contact: bumseok.view [at] gmail [dot] com
