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My trip to Beppu in the middle of February was a perfect way to escape
the cold winter weather for a weekend. The city, located in Oita-ken on
the island of Kyuushu, is famous for its hot springs, and I love
hot springs! I traveled with a bunch of other AETs from Yamaguchi-ken,
and it was lots of fun. For one thing, it was just wonderful to be somewhere
relatively warm... Beppu is well to the south of Ube, so the temperature
was comfortable enough for me to go without my usual hat, muffler, jacket,
and gloves. Just lovely! The city of Beppu is fairly large, situated cozily
between the beach and the mountains. There were palm trees, and it was
just beautiful. It reminded me of San Diego, in fact. The first thing we did in Beppu was take a sand bath. It was amazing- on the beach, you get to lie down and be buried in warm sand up to your neck. So relaxing! I almost didn't get a chance to experience it, though. Most of the group went down to the sand bath right away, but four of us were hungry, so we detoured for lunch before the sand bath. I love food, so of course I was in the eating group! Anyway, when we went to the sand bath, the lady at the front desk refused us, saying there were too many people, the sand had gotten cool ("kuuru," as they put it), and they were closing up shop for the day. I was so disappointed! Feeling quite dejected, we went to watch our friends enjoying their sand baths. It looked so incredibly nice that we started wondering if there wasn't some way we could get a sand bath too. One of the other AETs said, "Well, we could talk to the lady at the front desk again, but can any of us whine and beg and plead in Japanese?" Well, I am an only child... whining and begging is right up my alley! So I went back to the lady and started going off in my best Japanese ever about how we had come all the way from Yamaguchi-ken, and this was our one and only chance to be in Beppu, and all our friends were getting sand baths, etc etc... so she let us in. Mwahahahaha! FEAR THE ONLY CHILD! Anyway, the sand bath
was wonderfully relaxing. Lying there buried in warm sand, the breeze
playing on your face, listening to the sound of the waves lapping... it
was easy to drift off into dreamland. We got to wash off and bask in an
onsen afterwards. Pure bliss. Our next stop was Hell. No, really! Hell. In Beppu, there are eight Hells. Well, all right- technically, they're hot spring pools that are really really hot, and emit a lot of steam, and each one has a different appearance. They're just for looking, not for bathing. We went to the "Blood" Hell, so named because the minerals in it turn the water red. It was neat. I don't think it's necessary to see all the Hells, however. One will suffice. Next, we checked into our hotel, which was a traditional Japanese-style builing on a hillside, with a beautiful view of the city and the ocean... truly breathtaking. That evening, some of us wanted to visit another onsen, so we went to this little, old neighbourhood bath which cost 60 yen- about the equivalent of 50 cents. It was fantastic... a piece of real Japan, not for tourists. It was the kind of place frequented by cute little neighbourhood obaachan (grandmas). The building was probably built during the '40s or '50s, and had plain tiled walls and no decorations. The water was SO hot, I thought I would be boiled alive when I first got in. I think my cries of "I'm going to die! I'm going to die!!" may have alarmed some of the cute obaachan, but I got used to the temperature soon enough. Definitely an experience! Over the weekend, I also visited the most famous onsen in Beppu, the Suginoi Palace. It was incredible- very modern and glitzy, and the complete opposite of the little neighbourhood bath from the night before. There are two indoor baths in the complex, one for men and one for women, and they are situated in huge buildings that look like airplane hangars from the outside. It was great... the bath is surrounded by palm trees and bushes... there is one big bath (with "floating" torii in it, a la Miyajima) and then a bunch of smaller baths with different kinds of water and different decor. There are waterslides for the kids, and two saunas. It was amazing! Like the Disneyland of onsen. I spent a full hour hopping from bath to bath. After I had dried off and dressed, there was a stage show in a theatre just opposite the baths. Some Russian circus troupe was performing, it was pretty entertaining. There is also a food court and a video arcade in the building... you could literally spend all day there, if you wanted. I very much enjoyed my trip to Beppu, and would recommend it to anyone in need of some warmth and relaxation!
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