Highway to Hell (and then to Heaven)

What a terrific day we had today!  The weather was glorious and we thoroughly enjoyed indulging in the delights of Beppu.

After a much-needed sleep-in, we set off to visit the ‘Hells’ which we would have seen yesterday if not for our malfunctioning camera.  Our first visit was to the Umi Jigoku (Sea Hell).  This is a beautiful and very hot blue lake with steam shooting out violently in a couple of places.  It is really very impressive!  The colour is apparently caused by the cobalt content of the water. 

Umi Jigoku

 A basket of eggs was in the process of being boiled in a basket suspended from a pole, but we didn’t see anyone remove them or add more in the whole time we were there, so we suspected that this might be a prop!  However, the hot springs and steam spouts are certainly used for cooking as they are extremely hot.

Very hard boiled egg, anyone?

We then went for a stroll around the neighbourhood, then back on the scooters to ride to the Chi No Ike Jigoku (Blood Pond Hell).  That wasn’t quite how it was translated on the sign, which said "Bloody Hell Pond", but that was the intention.

The steam is hiding the red colour so you'll have to believe me!

This lake is 78 degrees Celcius and is coloured a deep red due to the clay soil that the water and steam pass through.  It is sometimes used to dye cloth.

As interesting and unique as they were, we decided that two of the Hells would be enough for one day so we went back to the Tourist Office to enquire about onsens.  I was very keen to make sure that I didn’t leave Beppu without experiencing a hot spring bath which is Beppu’s main claim to fame – although we did hear that it also has a thriving sex industry! We don't have to try everything, do we!!??   We were given a map showing a couple of onsens which had ‘Family Baths’, which are private baths that can be rented by the hour. 


We found one and had a tricky conversation with the lady who operated the baths.  I caught one word out of ten that she said, but that wasn’t enough to understand, so she kindly took us through to the bath area and showed us.  All she was trying to say was that we should hang the little wooden tag outside the door while we used the bath and then return it to her when we had finished.

This was the 'Heaven' bit!

It was heavenly to sit in what was really a mini-swimming pool with hot spring water up to our necks.  We had to get out a few times to cool off and then get back in again, but it wasn’t as unbearably hot as I’d thought.  When we’d finished, my conversation was much more managable – she asked “How was it?” (my Japanese could cope with that) and I replied “It was great!”. 

Our next stop was supposed to be the beach where there are hot sand baths, but we got distracted by a huge book shop.  We wandered around there for a while and I SO wanted to buy some books to further my Japanese, but we don’t have a skerrick of spare room on the scooters, so any book-buying will have to wait till the end of the trip when we are in Osaka.

 

 

We then made it over the the sand baths, which were closed by then but we were able to see how they worked.  There are two big concrete-edged pits of sand which are filled at night with steaming hot water.  The water is then drained off and the staff spend their days burying people in the hot sand for the benefit of their health and well-being.  We went for a stroll along the water-front and then headed back to our hotel in Oita.

The waterfront at Beppu with the Sunflower Ferry getting ready to leave for Osaka

Dinner tonight was a lazy one as we were a bit late getting back.  We paid our first visit of the trip to a hamburger place, but I don’t feel too guilty as it was a Mos Burger which has really nice food.  I just had to find out why it was called Mos Burger and discovered it stands for ‘Mountain, Ocean, Sun’.  Of course it does!

We’re off to Mt Aso tomorrow for a 3-night stay at the Aso Backpackers hostel, so we’ve spent the rest of the evening sorting our gear to repack.  As I write, John is looking for a part of the bracket that he needs to attach our webcam to his helmet.  It’s looking tragically like he’s left it at home, but I have complete faith that he’ll solve this problem in a very logical and competent way.

Bye for now - we're not sure about the Internet access for the next few nights, so don't worry if you don't hear from us.  The typhoon is far away, we're very safe and having a ball!