Japan Spring 2013 Trip: Day 17 - Bathing in Sand

Being based in Kyushu allows you to go to all sorts of interesting places on the island. Today, I went to Beppu, a town famous for its hot springs - both the ones you can (only) see and those you can actually submerge yourself into.

Express trains run pretty fast to Beppu from Hakata JR station, taking only roughly 2 hours to get there.

It's not a large town by any means, nor is it bustling and packed with tourists. Not that there aren't any, but relatively less compared to the likes of Nagasaki or Hiroshima. Buses get you around the town quite easily, but do check where the routes all go.

First stop were the so-called "eight hells". These were hot springs for viewing rather than dipping in. Then again, with the amount of steam bellowing out of these small geothermal spots, you probably wouldn't want to anyway. A pack of tickets for you to enter all eight costs ¥2000.

After getting off the bus at Kannawa, I walked over to Oniyama Jigoku.

One particularly interesting feature about this "hell" was its crocodile exhibit. Live crocodiles, in fact. Most of them were lazing around and sunbaking, but I wouldn't want to get too close to them (despite the fences), lest you wished to be snapped up alive.

Next to Oniyama Jigoku was Kamado Jigoku.

There was a stall here where you could buy some onsen snacks to eat. I went for the onsen tamago (egg) and an onsen pudding.

Compared to ordinary hard-boiled eggs, these onsen eggs had a slightly stronger taste. They give you salt for the whites and soy sauce to enjoy the yolk. On the other hand, the onsen pudding, made from the steam of the onsen, tasted pretty good, although it was mainly an egg/custard-based pudding with some caramel-sugar sauce draped over it. Kind of like a creme caramel, but not quite. 

Yama Jigoku was next. Seems hell has an elephant, a llama, pretty flamingos, a hippo and monkeys.

Umi Jigoku was close to it. It was pretty nice to look at, with its milky blue colour (just like, as the name suggests, the sea). They also had a lotus leaf greenhouse, with its primary source of heat coming from the thermal gas nearby.

Oniishibozu Jigoku was peculiar - no major lakes, but made of smaller spots of grey, boiling mud bubbles made from the geothermal gas beneath it.

A bit of a walk downwards was Shiraike Jigoku. Given its water clarity, it was presented in a more serene fashion with nice garden surrounds, notwithstanding the copious amounts of steam bellowing from it.

The other two hells had to be reached by another bus trip, unless you prefer to walk 3km and through a road tunnel. Chinoike Jigoku had lots of visitors, which can be explained by the hell's reddish-vermillion colour.

The foot spas were quite popular too, as it seemed...

The final "hell" was Tatsumaki Jigoku, just opposite Chinoike Jigoku. The special feature, unlike the other "hells", was that this comprised of a giant steamy water geyser, which would spout water out every 30-40mins for around 6 mins. So if you missed it, you needed to wait before it would spout water up again the next time.

Lunch was a fairly basic affair back near the train station, where I went for a standard tempura-don lunch set.

Afterwards, it was time to enjoy a nice sand bath at Takegawara Onsen. Actually, this was my first time going into any Japanese onsen, so it would make for a very interesting experience. 

When you enter (and pay for the sand bath fare), you go into the gender separated areas, strip off all your clothes (yes I do mean all, including your underwear), shove them all in a coin locker and put on your supplied yukata (bath robes). Then, you enter the sand bath area where you lie down flat on the sand pit and the staff will proceed to literally cover your entire body with hot sand. Then you just relax (and sweat a lot) for around 10 minutes. I can understand how this would be pretty difficult to withstand during the summertime, but as this was a nice and cool spring, the heat was fairly comfortable. And yes, if you're feeling inclined, the staff can help you take photos of you lying haplessly in a sand cocoon.

After the 10 minutes is up, you (slowly) get out from the sand pit, take a shower to get rid of the sand and then you can dip into the onsen bath. Be careful though, the water at Takegawara Onsen is very hot. So hot, even a local had to turn on the cold water tap for a while to help ease the temperature. Because of the incredibly hot water, I didn't stay in the water for very long, lasting for around 5-10 minutes. Getting out of it though, and my entire body felt refreshed and relaxed. Overall, it was very therapeutic; my muscles no longer felt stiff and it seemed my aches had been relieved somewhat. Which was what I had wanted, given I've been walking around Japan a lot and lugging around my backpack/luggage. 

Since Beppu was a fairly small town, and I still had some time left on my hands, I decided to make a short trip down to Oita, which was closeby (around 10min train trip from Beppu). Why Oita? Mainly for curiosity's sake, given the people that came from Oita. And incase you didn't already know who, the subway corridors and the ad screens made sure you did...

Or if you prefer, the Nogizaka46 version.

And yes, if you're wondering, a notable Oita resident has been soundly ignored. Poor Mikitty (Miki Yakata - SKE48).

By itself, Oita doesn't have anything special. A small, quiet yet fairly developed city with not much by way of touristy things to see and do. Which probably explains a bit of Sasshi's "country bumpkin" character at times. Still, at least I can say I've visited her hometown.

It was time to take the train back home to Fukuoka, where dinner would be at yet another ramen place at Canal City's Ramen Stadium. After all, there were eight stalls to try. Tonight, I went to 二男坊. They had an amazing tonkotsu ramen - I just love the cubes of fatty pork and the flakes of crisps really adding to the already rich pork bone broth. And as you'd expect from Hakata-style ramen, chewy noodles.

Breakfast: Pon de Ring Sakura (from Mister Donut)
Canned Coffee of the Day: Georgia Classic (4/5 - I actually quite like this one; good balance between sweetness and the richness of the coffee beans)