Daiichi Takimotokan : Review Noboribetsu Onsen Hotel, Dinner, Breakfast Buffet

On my second day in Hokkaido, I used my rail pass to visit the hot spring destination of Noboribetsu. I found a good deal at the large and popular Daiichi Takimotokan ryokan onsen hotel, which included meals. As a solo traveler, I paid around 120$ for the reservation, which I made before considering other accommodations. To get there, I took a bus from Noboribetsu Station and went up the hill.

• Japan, 〒059-0551 Hokkaido, Noboribetsu, Noboribetsuonsencho, ５５

To get to the Daiichi Takimotokan get off at Noboribetsu bus stop and walk up the hill. Daiichi Takimotokan Ryokan is located at the top of the road, near Noboribetsu’s famous tourist attraction, Hell Valley. Despite its surprising size, with several buildings combined, you can take your time and explore the area.

• Check-in time: 14:00
• Check-out time: 10:00

Check-in was quick and efficient. Despite the early time, I had plans to visit the public bath and have breakfast. When I arrived in the lobby, there were many people checking in, but the large hotel staff helped me finish quickly.

They gave me breakfast and dinner tickets, a hotel key, and escorted me through the hotel’s facilities. This helped us find our way around.

For accommodations with hot springs in Noboribetsu, a hot spring tax of 300 yen per person per day is added and must be paid separately.

I was assigned a room with a double bed on the 7th floor of the newly built building, located on the east side. The furniture was nice and clean, and there are various types of rooms available, including Japanese traditional ryokan-style tatami rooms and bed rooms.

The room was very modern and it was clean and spacious, with free snacks provided on the desk.

The bathroom also was wider and cleaner than expected, with a bathtub, although I preferred to use the large bath.

The closet had kimono-like clothes available to wear when going around the ryokan, with clothes of different sizes prepared in the room. Additionally, clothes for children and larger people were available in a separate corner in the lobby.

Two types of slippers were available in the shoe rack at the entrance, allowing for different sizes and flights. The view from the room was of the building next door, with a bit of the mountain visible from the veranda. Despite this, I had no complaints as I had made a reservation at a very cheap price.

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Daiichi Takimotokan is well-known for having the largest osen public bath in Noboribetsu.

The grand bath is located in a different building, and to get there, you have to go through several escalators. A separate towel is provided at the entrance of the large bath, and shampoo, body wash, and other essentials are available inside, so you don’t need to bring anything with you.

To enter the grand public bath, you need a hotel card key.

The bathroom is reported to be 5,000 square meters, which is quite spacious. There are different types of baths available, including white sulfur springs, acidic baths, and saline baths, each with different effects.

The large bath has two floors, and if you go down the stairs, there is an additional bath or sauna, and there is also a door that leads to an outdoor bath.

When it comes to Japanese hot springs, many people enjoy the outdoor open-air bath. That’s why people often have high expectations for the outdoor bath here. However, it was disappointing that there were only two types of water available. Despite this, the men’s bath offered a beautiful view of the Hell Valley, and it was fun to enter the hot spring in the cold air and see the scenic landscape.

If you’re not staying overnight at Dai-ichi Takimotokan, you can still enjoy the hot springs for a day. We recommend trying the hot springs if you visit Noboribetsu.

There is a drink bar in the large public bath. They sell beer, soft drinks, and milk. There is a drink bar not only at the entrance of the large communal bath, but also at the open-air bath, so you can order drinks while soaking in the hot spring.

There is a bathing wheelchair at the entrance of the large bath, so even those with disabilities can enjoy the hot springs with the help of family members.

Pool : Daiichi Takimotokan also has a separate swimming pool. I heard that there is nothing special about the size of the pool, so I did not go in.

Souvenir Purchase Shop : Daiichi Takimotokan has a fairly large shop on the 1st floor lobby where you can purchase souvenirs. There was a wide variety of delicious-looking sweets for gifts, as well as hot spring bath salts and other souvenirs. In particular, duty-free purchases are available for foreign tourists.

Recreation room: In the basement of the building, there was an arcade. There was also a sticker camera booth.

• Dinner buffet operating hours: 17:30~21:00

Daiichi Takimotokan has a large buffet restaurant on the 3rd floor of the main building, and was huge enough to accommodate most of the guests. You don’t have to make a reservation for a meal, and you can go to the desired time slot within the operating hours of the dinner buffet.

I thought there would be too many people during opening hours, so I decided to find a restaurant around 7:00 after using the large bath first.

I made a reservation after finding out that the hot springs are famous, so I went in without much research on the dinner buffet, so I didn’t know what kind of food was served.

In particular, I didn’t expect much because I made a reservation for about 150,000 won per person, but there were plenty of high-quality foods such as snow crab, fresh seafood, and sashimi.

First of all, looking at the sashimi corner, there were a lot of high-quality sashimi such as tuna, salmon, clam scallops, salmon roe, and yellowtail (looks the same) sashimi. The sashimi has been aged and chewed softly without any texture, but it was very delicious to eat with wasabi and oily fish.

I was excited about snow crabs, so I brought a lot of snow crabs to my plate. I worked hard on the meat with a tool to eat the crab, but the crab is frozen. I’ve seen crabs being steamed in the steamer next to me, but it seems that they haven’t been defrosted properly because I have to serve them to a lot of people. The frozen snow crab had no taste.

The most delicious food to choose from at the dinner buffet is the fried shrimp. They fry the shrimp right next to you in real time, and the size of the shrimp inside was really good and sweet.

I can’t say the steak is very delicious, but it was a good quality meat that was soft and chewy. I ate a lot of buffet meat that was tough and didn’t chew well, so I was satisfied with this too.

It’s probably miso ramen, but it wasn’t very strong and rich like famous restaurants, but it was satisfying.

All-you-can-drink menu (also called nomihodai) that you cannot help but order as a drink lover.

When I order, they bring me a drink while I’m at my seat and write down the time, saying that it counts for 60 minutes from then on. (It was sensible that the time was counted from the time of serving, not from the time of ordering.)

For the first glass, I chose Sapporo Classic Draft Beer. I couldn’t drink beer because I wasn’t feeling well the day before, so now I can drink Sapporo Classic Beer. After all, the draft beer I drank in Japan was cool and delicious. The first sip was really good. After that, I ordered a highball or sake and drank it.

Now for the downside of unlimited drinks. If you want to order a drink here, you have to go to the bar and call a passer-by to order a drink, rather than bring a drink from the store. The staff doesn’t go around every time you sit down, so you have to wait for the staff to come near you every time you order a drink.

In particular, the price of Nomihodai here is 2500 yen, and you need to drink 4 to 5 glasses to drink enough alcohol. (Beer is 880 yen, Highball is 500 yen) It was also uncomfortable, so I thought I made it for no reason. I recommend drinking only one or two drinks and focusing on the food.

Desserts here are surprisingly of good quality every week. The normal cakes placed in front of me were also delicious with a soft and moderate sweetness, so I took one more time and the ice cream that the staff spread directly tasted great. As if there was a reason to spread it directly, I spread it little by little with a small ice cream scoop. I think it’s expensive ice cream.

Also soft serve ice cream. I get the Yubari melon soft ice cream, an orange color unique to Hokkaido. It was very delicious with melon flavored ice cream. I ate more than I thought because of the high-quality dessert. I knew it was going to explode.

• Dinner buffet operating hours – 07:00 ~ 09:00

As the check-out time here is short, the breakfast time tends to end quickly. I had to get up diligently to have breakfast.

Breakfast consisted of relatively light menus, unlike there were various ingredients such as seafood.

Breakfast consisted of bread, eggs, and Japanese side dishes (pickles). There was also grilled fish.

Salmon-based noodle soup was also prepared for breakfast. I had a delicious miso ramen the day before, so I was looking forward to tasting the noodle that comes out for breakfast. Breakfast noodle was disappointing.

There was no high-end ice cream that came out at dinner, but the melon soft ice cream was still there, so I tried it again.

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I have introduced Noboribetsu’s representative onsen hotel, Daiichi Takimotokan. It is a very satisfying place to enjoy good facilities and meals at an affordable price that exceeded our expectations. If you are planning to travel to Hokkaido, we recommend that you consider visiting the Daiichi Takimotokan in Noboribetsu.

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