Sapporo/Noboribetsu Diaries: A Private Onsen Experience

On January 14 and 15, my boyfriend and I took a brief weekend getaway, sponsored by my parents as their Christmas gift to us this year, to Noboribetsu, a city in Hokkaido known for their onsen. Since I’m in Hokkaido, and I guess in Japan in general, I’ve been as wanting to go to an onsen at some point, and I heard Noboribetsu is a great place for that. My problem is that I’m not a huge fan of just sitting and doing nothing, even if is just relaxing in a hot spring bath. I feel like if I go, I need to go with someone so I can at least chat and vibe with them to pass the time. Another problem with being in a opposite-gender relationship is that we can’t go in a normal onsen together because most are separated by gender, aside from the private small baths, which may or may not require a rental fee. Thus, I was looking at hotels (I really wanted to go to a proper Japanese-style ryokan, or at least get a Japanese-style room, but perhaps a different time!), and was trying to look for a place that included a private onsen, preferably in the room. Some had a private one attached to higher end rooms, some had a private one for rent in the facility, but my parents ended up gifting us a night stay in a Junior Suite at Bourou Noguchi Noboribetsu. I was super excited and looking forward to the trip!

January 14: We woke up early, and because we had a large lunch plan, my boyfriend wanted to eat something before the large meal. Before taking our usual 7:40 bus to Sapporo, we stopped by a local FamilyMart, and my boyfriend picked up a Famichiki while I got a strawberry cream bread for breakfast and chocolate covered freeze-dried strawberries from their new Strawberry Fair campaign (it’s strawberry treat season!). Since I opted to take the free shuttle bus from Sapporo station to the hotel from 2-4, as opposed to self-paid public transportation, we’d need to spend some time and eat lunch in Sapporo. I mean, if we’re going to Sapporo, might as well go early and make the most of the day instead of essentially sitting for 4 straight hours, right? Our lunch spot for the day was at The Buffet in the Daimaru department store at 11, and we reserved seats at 11, right when they open. I had actually been before with my friend a few months ago back when their featured region was Hawaii, but a few weeks later it changed to Taiwan. My boyfriend expressed interest in trying it out, so I made a reservation to guarantee a spot.

Our bus arrived in Sapporo around 10:20, so we had some time to kill before lunch. Since our Korea trip is coming up and I wanted to have some cash on me, I decided to exchange some yen to won that day so I wouldn’t have to worry about doing it the day of or deal with bad airport exchange rates. We still had a bit of time, so we checked out Kinokuniya because my boyfriend was hunting for a manga he likes. By then, it was perfectly nearing 11, so we headed to Daimaru, which was pretty close by in the area.

We went with the Light course, since we didn’t really want any of the additional items for the added price. Overall, everything was relatively good for a cheap buffet. Except the for featured “Taiwan” items, everything else was the same as I had eaten and seen before. The buffet has a variety of cuisines with a small selection of items per cuisine, including Chinese (a little more Japanese-Chinese though), Korean (I think only the Korean-style fried chicken, but regardless), Japanese, Italian, a salad bar, a dessert case, and a sundae section. I generally was a fan of most of the food there, and I did stuff myself. I wasn’t overstuffed, but I definitely did eat a little more than a full stomach. Gotta get my money’s worth!

After our 90 minutes were up and we were full, we had some time to kill before our bus departed at 2, and check-in prior to that. On our way up, it looked like there was a new food hall pop-up happening on the floor below us and I wanted to window-shop it (despite being full), but I accidentally took an escalator that skipped that floor. Oops. I ended up exploring some cafes on a lower floor, bookmarked them in my head, and once we were on the first floor, we briefly stopped by the Hokkaido Shiki Marche, a Hokkaido goods specialty souvenir shop that I had been meaning to check out. There’s also two booths selling freshly-made cookies, ice cream, and fried chicken, and I also have to go back at some point to try those out too. My boyfriend needed some new earbuds, so we also headed to Big Camera to grab some for him.

Since I wouldn’t be back in Sapporo until the day after, I wanted to try to grab a drink, and the one that was on my radar was the current Starbucks limited frappucino, the mochi matcha frapp. It was also my last chance to get it, since the new limited one, Fondant Chocolate, is supposed to come out on the 18th. Unfortunately, the location I went to was sold out of the frapp. These seem to be super popular, but for whatever reason I’ve missed the last two now, but still want to try the next one! I ended up getting the new Matcha Cream Donut that was part of the current campaign, and my boyfriend got the hot latte version of the new campaign.

I had a few sips from my boyfriend’s latte, and it was pretty good matcha latte (interestingly enough, the latte was also sold out at another Starbucks I would visit the day after). Now, Japanese Starbucks has a matcha frapp on their normal menu, but it’s no fun if you can get that anytime. The new one was supposed to be a matcha and genmaicha blend, have black beans and kelp and ume powder, and feature mochi with a matcha mousse. Fancy. I did buy the donut, but wouldn’t eat it until a couple days later as my after-work snack on Monday. I’m sure fresh would have been better, but the donut itself was ok. Besides everything being green, the most matcha part about it was the cream inside the donut.

Now, by the time we were done at Starbucks, it was essentially a little past 1:30, and I thought we had plenty of time to check-in with the bus people since the instructions sounded pretty straightforward. According to the website, reception would open 30 minutes prior to boarding, and they asked to check in at least 15 minutes prior. The meeting area was supposed to be at the North Exit near the East Ticket Gate, and meet up with the staff there. We arrived to the East Ticket Gate, and even after walking around a bit looking for what looked like a reception area, but I saw nothing of the sort anywhere (and to mention the East Ticket Gate are is not small!). I low-key panicked, because there weren’t any other directions, and first asked the help desk at the station. The man at the booth looked super confused and said he had no idea what I was talking about, and can only answer questions related to taking the actual JR train. I was just walking about the area, and finally about 10 minutes before, my boyfriend said to call the hotel, since the bus staff/website/confirmation email had no contact information. I called the hotel, explained my situation, and they said they’d forward my contact details to the staff on site. A few minutes later, I got a call from the staff, and we were able to meet up pretty quickly after I spotted her in her yellow uniform. She said the check-in actually took place a little further back than where I was looking (which was not that close to the actual Ticket Gate…), but escorted us to the bus after handing us a ticket. The bus was supposed to be free seating, but by the time we boarded, there was only one row of two seats open, the rest of the bus being full. Thankfully we made it, with a few minutes before departure to spare, and we weren’t acually the last ones. Apparently we were missing a few more people and even waited an extra 5 minutes before departing, but they never came.

Contrary to my expectations, this bus didn’t have wifi, which actually was kind of surprising, as I was used to every bus I’ve taken in Japan so far to have wifi. Nevertheless, it made for a good chance to sightsee the scenery out the window, since I haven’t seen or been to these parts yet.

Even though we left a few minutes late, the bus ride itself took exactly 2 hours, including a 10 minute pitstop break for the bathroom halfway. The bus actually stopped right in front of the Sekisuitei hotel, as that hotel is owned by the same company that owns the hotel we were going to stay at. The staff asked if anyone was staying at Bourou, and I raised my hand, and we were told to get off the bus and were escorted by a staff member. Turns out we were the only ones on the bus that was staying at Bourou, and I guess everyone else was staying at Sekisuitei.

Now while everything about the stay was amazing, I just want to say, the check-in experience as the first exposure to the hotel was magical. After being escorted to the hotel entrance, we walked into a wooden doorway and what essentially looked like a wall the same color as the door frame automatically slid open, not once, but twice. It was like entering a secret ninja hideout that was trying to hide the entrance. We were told to sit and wait in the lobby while they prepared for our check-in, and in the meantime, they served us snacks and tea. The house-made donache was so good that we were tempted to buy it from their souvenir shop, and it was like eating a rich, buttery, pillowy donut. I also liked the black bean tea they served; it was mildly sweet, yet had a unique deep and aromatic flavor to it. The entire check-in process took place on the couch, as a staff member came by with papers and explained everything about our stay while we were enjoying our snacks. This was also the time I opted to pay for our stay.

At the end of the check-in process, we received our room keys and were escorted to our room. Even though our Junior Suite was the smallest room they had availble, it was still really spacious, with a sizeable lounge area, a desk equipped with multiple coffees and teas and equipment, a fridge with free drinks, two beds, a bathroom with mutiple amenities, and most importantly, a bathing room that had a shower area with two sets of stools, two different sets of shampoos, and our in-room onsen bath. (Which reminds me, all the room types/suites in this hotel are meant for 1-2 people, even their top Executive Suite. Seems a bit excessive for 2 people, but I digress) After doing a bit of a room tour, we headed back downstairs to Bar Zero to claim our free drinks that would last until 5:30.

The drinks they were offering were draft beer, a Nikka highball, and strawberry lassi. My boyfriend got the draft beer, which came with some snacks, and because I don’t drink alcohol, I opted for their soft drink option, the strawberry lassi. It was pretty good, creamy with just a bit of yogurt flavor, and I really liked it. I was under the impression that free drinks meant that during the period they would be free, but when I tried to order another one they said they would have to charge me. Oh well.

After we finished our drinks and chilling at the bar, we checked out the other areas on the floor. The library was a small room that looked pretty cool, and we checked our the souvenir “shop”. I put that in quotation marks, because it was less of a separate shop area and more of items put on display with price tags in a row of glass cases, and a register on the side. The items were tempting, but in the end we decided not to get anything, even though there would be a small discount from 8-10pm. The last stop before chilling in our room before dinner was the lounge, which was super minimalistically aesthetic and spacious, and also offered free drinks until midnight. They had different types of coffee, a selection of tea bags, orange juice, and water. I had heard free drinks, and though I like tea, I wasn’t in the mood for more tea at the moment, and their soft drink selection kind of disappointed me as I’m not a huge fan of orange juice.

A little before 6, we changed into the provided samue clothes and headed down to the second floor for dinner. We were escorted to a private room with utensils, a menu, and an explanation sheet laid out on the long table, and our Japanese-Western kaiseki dinner experience began. And I’ll just say beforehand, our winter menu was so good (for those that stay multiple nights, do they get the same menu?). Everytime a piece came out, they would lay it on the table and then proceed to explain and identify the items on the plate. Note that most of the English is taken directly from the site’s English menu.

Original Cocktail: TORIN~Frosty Fallen Leaves
Original Cocktail: TORIN~Frosty Fallen Leaves

Like I mentioned before, I don’t drink alcohol and I never had, but since it was part of the set I figured I should at least try it. The initial smell didn’t have much of that alcoholic scent that I dislike (though after a while I could tell it was there), and it tasted like a fruity berry soda that had a bit of that alcoholic aroma. It was actually quite pleasant, and cheers to my first drink I guess, ha!

Appetizer: Gougère, Housho-Age Deep-Fried Smelt, Uncured Ham and Grilled Eggplant Marinade, Soy Pulp Tossed Baby Scallops, Smoked Sakhalin Surf Clam and Lotus Root Aspic, Braised Salmon Jerky and Japanese Winter Vegetables, Chicken Confit
Appetizer: Gougère, Housho-Age Deep-Fried Smelt, Uncured Ham and Grilled Eggplant Marinade, Soy Pulp Tossed Baby Scallops, Smoked Sakhalin Surf Clam and Lotus Root Aspic, Braised Salmon Jerky and Japanese Winter Vegetables, Chicken Confit

The first actual plate that came was this giant board with many small dishes on it. I think generally everything was very good, but I liked the ham on the skewer the best out of the many items. Everything was tiny and I tried to savor them as I ate, but the size and amount made that a little difficult. I believe the staff recommended it to eat it by height/order on the plate, but however you wanted was also fine as well.

Bowl Dish: Steamed Snow Crab Ball and Edible Lily Bulb Purée Soup
Bowl Dish: Steamed Snow Crab Ball and Edible Lily Bulb Purée Soup

To take off the lid, which was essentialy sealed by the pressure inside, we were instructed to squeeze the sides of the bowl to release the pressure. This was pretty good, and I really liked the tender fishcake-like crab block. I’m pretty sure that was supposed to be the focus of this dish, as my boyfriend commented that the soup lacked flavor, and I agreed to a degree, but I still enjoyed the light flavor of the soup.

Sashimi Dish: Marbled Sole with Kamuy Mintalu Salt from Toyako-cho, Hokkaido, Rockfish with Sudachi Sour Citrus Jelly, Abalone with Tosa Shoyu, Japanese Amberjack, Grilled Fugu, Yuba with Oroshi Ponzu
Sashimi Dish: Marbled Sole with Kamuy Mintalu Salt from Toyako-cho, Hokkaido, Rockfish with Sudachi Sour Citrus Jelly, Abalone with Tosa Shoyu, Japanese Amberjack, Grilled Fugu, Yuba with Oroshi Ponzu

The sashimi dish came with two pieces per item, along with a special soy sauce in a special container, salt, and freshlly grated wasabi (I’m not a wasabi person tough). Originally, there was supposed to be shrimp, but since I indicated beforehand that I am not good with shrimp, they replaced it with grilled fugu, or pufferfish. Everything here, again, was very good, tender, and different from sashimi you’d typically see. I think if I had to pick, my favorite would be the one right in the middle.

It was also at this time I was startint to feel thirsty, likely from the salt and soy sauce, and the only drink we had was the cocktail. As I was thinking about asking for water, magically, a cup of water (that came in a very cute glass if I may add), came with the next dish. Did they know?

Light Dish: Pot-Au-Feu with Salmon and Cod
Light Dish: Pot-Au-Feu with Salmon and Cod

The next thing that came out was this pot-au-feu (which I had no idea what it was, but I guess it’s usually just French boiled beef and vegeables?). They placed the plate on our mat, lifted up the lid, and poured the soup into the section with the ingredients. Again, there was supposed to be a shrimp sausage, but they replaced that with some salmon. I love salmon, so I’m not complaining about that. Along with that, I was a fan of the light flavor of the boiled items.

Potato mochi in a creamy sauce
Potato mochi in a creamy sauce

At this point, the next dish that came out was in this really cute orb bowl-like container, and was actually unexpected, as it was neither on the English menu I saw online, nor on the paper menu we received on the table. This was really nice, and as a mochi enjoyer, I loved the texture of this item.

[Not included in this picture is the Yumepirika Rice brought in a clay pot, with enough for second servings. I’m a rice fiend, but at this point was pretty full for another serving. Sad.] The next plate(? tray? board?) that was brought out was the main for the day, with two slices of beef and deer meat that had already been cooked on low temperature. We were to finish cooking the meat to our preferences on the hot stone, which was pretty cool. This also came with another type of soy sauce, a little milder than the sashimi one, a garlic sauce, some more salt, and a carrot puree. The deer meat was an interesting experience, as it was kind of like beef (but not really), but still tasted unique in its own way. I still preferred the beef over it though, searing it on the rock and eating it soon after made it amazingly tender, and that garlic sauce was amazing. I found it funny that the part of the mini bread stick that was in the puree was super soggy, but the other end was still super crispy. We were also served some tea at this point too.

Soup Dish: White Miso Soup Country Style, Red Turnip Pickles, Japanese White Radish Miso-Flavored Pickles, Cauliflower Pickles, Sansho-Flavored Braised Lamb Flakes, Wasabi Kombu from Fujisaki Wasabi-En
Soup Dish: White Miso Soup Country Style, Red Turnip Pickles, Japanese White Radish Miso-Flavored Pickles, Cauliflower Pickles, Sansho-Flavored Braised Lamb Flakes, Wasabi Kombu from Fujisaki Wasabi-En

The last item before dessert was miso soup, minced lamb, and an assortment of pickles. The miso soup was refreshing, all of the pickles were great, and I think I’m getting used to eating lamb now after being exposed to Genghis Khan. There was an interesting mochi-like block in the miso soup, and apparently that was a rice cake made from a specific type of grain. After this, we were asked to choose between coffee, tea, or and orange tea as our post-meal drink. My boyfriend ordered the orange, and at first I just wanted tea, but then I thought that the orange one was more unique, so I changed my mind.

Narangah Blood Orange Tea with Tiffin Tea Liqueur
Narangah Blood Orange Tea with Tiffin Tea Liqueur

The tea was, indeed, an orange tea, and came with a tiny cup of black tea liqueur and blood orange syrup. The original flavor was very light, and added with the blood orange syrup made it taste even better. I’m not a huge orange person, but this tea was pretty good. Before the actual dessert came out, a surprise came…

Anniversary Dessert

I had indicated in a form that we were celebrating an anniversary (which isn’t wrong, as our anniversary was about a week prior), and I read on their website that they can do a little something for special occasions or celebrations. This dessert plate was super cute, and I quite liked the crispy persimmon and asian pear. The chocolate item was very brownie-like, and somewhat surprisngly was different than the chocolate cake on the actual dessert plate. Oh and for dessert, they cleaned off everything and gave us new utentils, including a very interesting looking fork.

Dessert: Fondant au Chocolat, Strawberry Daifuku Mochi Shortcake, Quail Egg Vanilla Ice Cream
Dessert: Fondant au Chocolat, Strawberry Daifuku Mochi Shortcake, Quail Egg Vanilla Ice Cream

This was one fancy dessert plate. The staff instructed us to eat the fruit with the chocolate that was suppsoed to leak out of the cake, but really, there was no leaky chocolate in the cake. The cake itself was good, super creamy and thick, but no chocolate. I think my favorite of the fruit on the plate was what I believe to be western pear, but I really can’t recognize it, even though the taste was super familiar. The quail egg ice cream was very interesting, as they added a sprinkle of salt on top to make it sort of a savory ice cream. What ended up happening though was I would take parts from the top, and thus get most of the salt in my initial tasting of the ice cream. There wasn’t really an explanation on the crumb-y granola-like item in the corner, but it was nice, I guess. I also enjoyed dipping the shortcake in the matcha sauce; that was good.

They took our order for breakfast, between a Japanese or Western breakfast, and we both went for the Japanese one. After chilling for a bit with full stomachs, we headed back to our room to relax, and then used our private onsen (with adjustable temperature!) before bed.

January 15: Our bus back to Sapporo was scheduled for 10am and our checkout was suposed to be by 9:50, so the day prior we chose our breakfast time to be at 8:30, which they told us would take around 40 minutes to an hour. We wanted to take advantage of our bath while we were there, so we woke up a bit earlier to soak in our private onsen while we had the morning view too. For whatever reason, the initial dip in was much hotter and slightly more difficult to adjust to in the morning.

We got out around 8am to get dressed, this time in the hotel yukatas, and pack up most of our things before heading down to eat breakfast at 8:30. Again, we were escorted to a private room to eat, and when we got there, utensils, the shabu pots, drinks and menu were already laid out.

This time around, they didn’t explain each dish as thoroughly as dinner when they brought it, except for the dessert, as most of it seemed to be self-explanatory (plus there’s a menu, albeit in Japanese). I didn’t drink the drinks right away, but I did have the haskap (a famous fruit in Hokkaido) first, then the milk, then the apple juice. I quite liked the haskap juice; it was just so slighty tart but still naturally sweet, and wasn’t like any other fruit I had. The only other time I had anything haskap was a haskap flavored snack I got from a coworker. Moving on to the milk, I know this is Hokkaido, but I honestly thought it would just be normal, rich milk. When I first sipped it, it was so creamy, and the flavor was also unlike other milk I’ve ever had that I checked the menu to see what was up with this milk (just casually using local milk). Never underestimate Hokkaido milk. Finally, I saved the apple juice for last because I love apple juice. It tasted like other 100% apple juice I’ve had here, light and refreshing, and apple-y.

Anyway, the salad came out first, and they also lighted the fire under the hot pot when the staff came the first time. I thought it was nice that we could customize our small salad. The baby croutons were really cute too.

Then they brought out the miso soup and green tea, and quickly followed up with the giant platter with everything else except the dessert. Then they said that this was it before dessert, and we could eat it in any order we wanted. The sashimi was amazingly melty, I always love me a good grilled fish, and the agedashi tofu was also great. I think this was my first time eating cod roe in a block like this (was pretty good), and most definitely my first time eating natto. I stirred it up, and tried it, and surprisingly, it wasn’t bad despite its reputation. My boyfriend isn’t a fan, but I didn’t entirely mind the taste, at least if it was just a little at a time. I’m the type of person to finish one thing at a time, but I could not eat all that in one sitting. Eventually, I put some soy sauce on it, and it made it better, but I didn’t end up finishing all of it. I am not a huge yolk, much less runny yolk, person, but I did eat the onsen egg. That was ok. The hot pot experience was super cool though, and that meat was a perfect marbling. This was Kuroge wagyu, one of Japan’s top varieties of beef. Oh yes, this time around, I went for seconds on the rice, and even manage to score some burnt rice from the pot. Heck yeah.

Lastly, before dessert came out, they took our orders for a post-meal drink between coffee and tea. Neither of us drink coffee, so they brought black tea, and even gave us a small cup of milk to turn into milk tea if we wanted. They even offered sugar, but we both declined. I later found a small basket of sugar cubes in the corner of the room as we were leaving.

Our final item here was the dessert plate. I liked all of the fruits in the fruit cup, all perfectly sweet yet just a bit tart, but for being verbally described as a jelly, it was much more liquid-y than I thought it would be. Then I had the milk mochi, which was slightly runnier than regular mochi, but still had a nice texture and mochi flavor. Finally, I used the juice in the pipette to eat with my cream sandwich. It was delicate, fluffy and soft, and though the juice was described as sour, it really wasn’t, and added a nice flavor to the plain cream.

With that, we left the dining area after finishing our meal, changed out of the yukata, and headed down to check out. Around 9:50, we were escorted out of the hotel, across the street to Sekisuitei, to board the shuttle bus back to Sapporo. Again, with a pit stop in the middle for a bathroom break, the bus really did pull into Sapporo station at 12.

At that point, my boyfriend said he wasn’t too hungry, and so we changed our plans a little. At first, I was thinking of going to a yakiniku place that looked like it had a pretty good lunch menu, but my boyfriend said he probably didn’t have room for that. He wanted to browse Kinokuniya again, so we went for a bit, him browsing, and me checking out their Starbucks just in case (which had no frapp…sad). I then suggested ramen, because I found a place serving tonkotsu ramen, something my boyfriend has been wanting more of since not many places arond here have tonkotsu ramen, and it was close by too. He said he could probably fit ramen, and agreed.

My boyfriend thought the ramen was ok, but ohmigosh I think I found my new favorite ramen I’ve had in Japan so far. Along with many of my other friends, I agree that tonkotsu is one of the better bases for ramen, and this one had a very nice flavor to it. My boyfriend wanted one that was more umami and flavorful, but I actually thought the flavor was perfect. They let you choose the hardness of your noodles, but we both got the normal. My other favorite part about this place is that they have thin noodles! I love thin wheat noodles (am not fond of yellow noodles), and that paired with the tonkotsu was amazing. I guess I just like Hakata-style noodles more than anything. I got the option that had more meat int it, and the chashu was so melty and tender. Honestly, I was already over Ichiran because of the little amount of stuff for the price, but if this is around, I’d consider this in my rotation of places.

I wanted to try their gyoza because they said it was handmade, and was somewhat surprised at how tiny they came out! I also didn’t think there would be that many too, ha! They were pretty good, nice crisp, but the insides tasted like any other normal gyoza.

After that, I of course needed to get boba, and my place of choice was Gong Cha, for their new seasonal/limited drink. You can read about my drink here!

Houji & Kuromitsu Milk Tea
Houji & Kuromitsu Milk Tea (630 yen)

I needed to go grocery shopping that day, plus we didn’t have too much left to do in Sapporo, so we got on the soonest bus and went home!


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