We arrived in Beppu at about 7.00am – not a very good time for tourists to land in an unfamiliar place! Keeping an eye out for the Tourist Information Office, we rode to Hell. Or more specifically, the ‘jigoku’, commonly known as the Hells, which are hot springs of the “viewing, not bathing” type. In the carpark, we had our first disaster for the day, when we discovered that the camera wasn’t working. We made a bigger effort to find the Tourist Information Office as we had a chance there of asking where we could buy a memory card for the camera as John thought that the card was the problem. As we rode into the car park, we saw a woman kneel down at a grate in the road, spread newspaper on the ground, and retrieve something that she’d cooked in the steam! Well – that’s something you don’t see every day!!
In the Tourist Office were very pleased to find two very nice staff members who spoke excellent English. They told us where we could find a memory card and invited us to use the free foot bath area as the electrical shop doesn’t open until 10.00am. There were two foot baths – a steam bath and a hot spring bath. We tried both and they felt SO good!!
Then came the second disaster. When we had parked the scooters, John had engaged the little key lock cover which protects the lock from rain, dust and thieves, using a little device on the end of the ignition key. John didn’t have one of these little doo-dads on his key, so he used mine instead. When we got back to the scooters, my lock cover released, but John’s didn’t – which, we assumed in hindsight, is why he didn’t have the little gadget on his key! He started dismantling the front of the scooter, but quickly realised that he wasn’t going to be able to do it with our little convenience store tools that we bought in Osaka. He went back in to the Tourist Office and the helpful man took it all in hand and called a mechanic friend. The friend came, loaded up the scooter in the back of his ute, and said he’d be back about noon. John rode my scooter to the shop to collect the memory card, which, as he had thought, solved the camera problem. We really didn’t want to be visiting such a unique place without a camera.
After that, we went for a stroll around the area using the walking trail map from the office and found it all very interesting. There is steam rising up out of the ground all over the town and the locals put it to good use including for cooking. Several houses had steamer ovens outside with steam constantly flowing through them. All they do is pop in a basket of food, put the lid on and leave it to steam.
Steam ovens
Cooking lunch in the steamers at the Tourism Office
Our Tourist Office friend then took us up to the road to a little restaurant and helped us to order an early lunch, then left us there while he went back to his duties.
Lunch cooked in a more traditional way
A Beppu street scene (umbrella to keep off sun, not rain!)
Just as we were finishing lunch, he came back to say that the scooter was back and fixed. Bless him and all his family, neighbours and friends!! We paid the man for the repair and resumed our sightseeing. It’s very disconcerting seeing steam rising from the grates in the road, but very fascinating too.
This narrow street is two-way, but the locals just
drive carefully and give way to each other.
It can't be seen in the photo, but steam rises from the grate in the road
We decided to defer the Hells until tomorrow as we still wanted to see a bit more of the area around the Tourist Office and we still had the ride to Oita, the neighbouring city, where we’ll be staying for the next two nights.
A lovely building in Beppu
We were quite worn out by the excitement (??) of the day, so we rode to Oita, checked into the hotel and took it easy for the rest of the afternoon.
The hotel is near the station, so we knew that we’d find a good range of eateries. We chose one that had an array of those plastic sample dishes that the Japanese do so well. They make it so easy to choose a meal as you can see just what you’re getting. We both had ramen noodle soup with rice and different accompaniments and the whole experience was delightful. Oh, except for the man a couple of tables away who was smoking. That’s something that is still quite acceptable in Japan.
On the way back from the hotel, a friendly (and probably a little tipsy) man called out “Konbanwa” (Good evening), so I gave him back my best “Konbanwa”. I don’t think they see too many westeners in these parts. Our Tourist Office friend said that the tourist numbers are dramatically down since the tsunami and nuclear issue, but we feel perfectly safe here in Kyushu.
After Skype sessions with Erin and then with John’s parents, we hit the sack ready for more adventures tomorrow.
Oh - I forgot to mention that when we checked in to the hotel, we thought that I'd lost John's passport, but all is well. It was just hiding.
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