#jigokudani

[zoetica]

A hillside house that seems to have materialised from a Hayao Miyazaki animation. Hell Valley, Hokkaido. 2025

[tomorrowingray]

[yridenergyridenergy]

My hellish trip

Aside from the quite imperfect start that it had, I also tried to do as many hell-related things as possible during this trip to Japan, in honour of the tour being called: "Who is this hell for?"

Of course, I couldn't go to Sapporo and not visit Jigokudani (hell valley) in Noboribetsu. They compare the landscape to something out of this world, like from Mars, and the sulfuric fumes remind us of hell's flames. That being said, having been spoiled on sulfur sources in Iceland super recently, I wasn't that impressed, except that Noboribetsu's had way more colours than Iceland's.

Then, I was able to stop in Aomori to visit Towada Art Center. Ever since I saw photos of her works online, I'd dreamt of seeing one in person. The art exhibited all around and inside the center are also more than worthwhile, but yeah, I'm in love with Memory of Water:

(Hellish because... Those are not happy memories of water hahah.)

Next, I caught in extremis an exhibition on Louise Bourgeois, famous for her Mother spider sculptures, but who, it turns out, had a lot of parallels with Kyo's mentality, I find. And she once said:

Not sure if that was exhaustive, but in such a short time, I think I stuck to the theme as much as I could. I guess, as for my personal hell, I also visited an exhibition by a woodcarver who recreates very realistic food as painted wood, which a ton of food might as well be in my case since I can't partake in it. Hopefully the other visitors felt 1% of my frustration.

[traveljapan47]

Jigokudani Monkey Park, Nagano, Japan, 地獄谷野猿公苑, 長野

[a-light-seeking-dream]

A snow monkey with child (Japanese Macaque) near a hot spring in winter, Nagano, Japan by Grant Thomas

[jupebox]

Some doodles from the jigokudani monkey park. There were SO MANY FREAKIN MONKEYS. They moved too fast for my slow hands to really keep up though

[tsutomu-innami]

黙考

[sleeplessintokyo87]

The Jigokudani Monkey Park (hell valley) was in my bucket list for as long as I can remember.

I was lucky to have such a beautiful snowy day :)