A Walk Around Hell Valley – The Home of Hokkaido’s Most Famous Onsen

Hell Valley is a much prettier place than you might imagine.

It’s an 11-hectare crater carved into the forests of Shikotsu-Toya National Park in Hokkaido on Japan’s North Island.

Known locally as Jigokudani, Hell Valley looks and sounds inhospitable, with bubbling 80℃ geysers and sulphur-filled steam that seeps out of cracks in its multicoloured earth.

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However, I watched a family of deer ignore the ‘Do not enter’ signs that line its perimeter, and only a few hundred meters down the road, I followed other humans into the very same water that spewed out of its depths for a therapeutic bath.

It turns out Hell Valley is more bark than bite. And, it’s got a soothing bark at that.

Getting to ‘Oni No Sumu Jigoku’ (Where The Demons Live)

Jigokudani is the life-blood of Noboribetsu Onsen, the neighbouring town that turns the 80℃ water from Hell Valley into a more inviting 40℃ bath for the thousands of Japanese and foreign visitors that travel here each year in search of a rejuvenating soak.

As any self-respecting place called Hell Valley would be, Jigokudani and Noboribetsu are inhabited by demons.

It’s said that these demon gods called Yukijin guard the medicinal baths and there are eleven demon statues scattered throughout the town — including an 18-metre-tall behemoth that guards the main road.

Two local Yukijin modelled after the Buddha Ogre. Both play an important role in keeping the 10,000 tons of mineral-rich water flowing to the onsens in Noboribetsu each day.

Noboribestu is only an hour’s drive from New Chitose Airport, in the southwestern part of Hokkaido.

There’s Something in the Water…

There are more than 25,000 hot spring sources in Japan, which gives the entire archipelago its own underfloor heating. Around 3,000 onsen establishments harness this natural gift and of those, Noboribetsu Onsen is consistently ranked in the top ten across Japan, and is certainly the most famous in Hokkaido.

Having visited Japan half a dozen times and worked in and around its ski resorts, I’ve thawed myself out in plenty of onsens during winter — from a 100-year-old traditional konyoku (mixed gender) onsen on northern Honshu, to a small onsen nestled behind an eight-metre snow bank near Niseko while nursing frostbite and drinking Sapporo Classics (uniquely permitted there) after a backcountry trip.

However, at Noboribetsu you have the unique experience of being able to watch what will become your onsen water, gush up out of the ground a few hundred metres uphill.

The building rising out of the forest south of Jigokudani is Dai-ichi Takimotokan, the hotel we stayed at with a 160-year history and 5,000 square metre bath, some of which look out over Jigokudani

Dai-ichi Takimotokan is the largest onsen in Hokkaido with 35 baths fed by five different water types that gush out of Jigokudani (there are nine types out of a possible ten in all of Japan at Jigokudani, which makes it especially rare).

Each has a unique benefit.

1. Sulphur Spring – A strongly acidic water that helps with skin conditions but comes with a certain smell
2. Alum Spring – The most acidic spring water that enhances circulation
3. Ferrous Sulphate Spring – Contains hydrogen sulphide and relieves atopic dermatitis
4. Salt Spring – Stimulates circulation and warms the body
5. Sodium Spring – Boasts a reddish tinge caused by the oxidation of the iron in the water. Sodium bicarbonate in this alkaline spring also helps soften skin

Hiking Around Hell Valley

Accompanied by passionate local guide Shintarou Konno, we left our hotel and began walking towards Hell Valley. I was expecting a serious hike after being handed a pair of Nordic walking poles, but quickly discovered access to Hell Valley was also much easier than the name suggests. And that the Japanese idea of a hike, at least in our group, was really a cruisy stroll.

Less than five minutes on the footpath and up a set of cobbled stairs, which Shintarou Konno was kind to point out were slippery, we were standing above Jigokudani.

Jigokudani is a place of contrasts. Boiling water versus rejuvenating baths. Barren rock piles and beautiful forest. A mix of rocky outcrops and steaming pools, it truly looks like another planet.

The multicoloured ground reflects the rich mineral composition of the water. Yellow pockets of sulphur, white salt patches, and red and orange shades indicate acidic iron in the ground.

Shintarou Konno tells us there are 24 ‘gushing-out spots’ in Noboribetsu and that they are far more active and temporary than one might think. We walk past a bubbling crater a few metres wide that only opened in the past few years and continues to swallow the surrounding ground, taking new bites out of it every month or two.

A few years earlier a tourist found themselves on the edge of one such spot just beside the concrete path and nearly fell in. While unharmed, the path that originally snaked around the valley on the ground has now been converted into a fenced boardwalk above the bubbling landscape.

This boardwalk weaves its way into the centre of Jigokudani and encircles one of the more active gushing-out points, a geyser called Tessen-ike. We’re warned that this hell hole eats iPhones instead of the surrounding earth as you can peer straight over and into it.

Beyond the boardwalk, there are a number of trails and walking tracks around the valley, but they’re still suitable to any fitness level (or shoe type) — you can leave the Nordic hiking poles and boots at home.

We meandered around Jigokudani and investigated little detours to different viewpoints before continuing along another trail for 20-30 minutes to nearby Oyunuma Pond.

Beware the trail to Oyunuma is closed in the winter time. We’re told it’s a remarkably different place depending on the season with vibrant autumn colours and deep winter snow.

Unlike the grey waters of Jigokudani, Oyunuma’s milky blue water is almost inviting.

So much so that a Swedish couple decided to go for a dip a few years ago. It turns out they underestimated the 50℃ surface temperature and came out looking a little less zen and a little more like the cooked snow crab we’d been served in the hotel the night before.

Oyunuma is one of the world’s rarest and largest hot water lakes. At its bottom, sulphur-rich water gushes out at nearly 130℃.

On the far side of Oyunuma Pond, grey steaming water makes its escape and flows into Oyunuma Brook. There’s a trail that runs parallel to the river here, along with a number of pipes that bring the sulphur-rich water to the 24 onsen establishments back in town.

A Final Footbath

Winding through the forest filled with Japanese Aspen and mountains of Sasa (a dwarf bamboo) our final stop was — a not necessarily deserved but equally welcome — footbath in the river.

After five minutes in the mineral-rich water, you can tell it’s not regular old water. It’s almost… otherworldly. Here the temperatures were much more forgiving (I’d guess around 30-35℃).

I’m told we have the Red Yukijin to thank for the temperature and the Blue Yukijin to thank for the consistent flow. Until I can take these Yukijin home to fix my apartment’s hot water unit… I’ll keep coming to Japan for my fix.

Matt was a guest of Hokkaido Tourism.