J-Subculture News

Ami's Japan Travel Guides! Vol.2: Beppu, Oita-ken

　Hello, everyone~ The weather's getting cooler, isn't it? I don't know about the country where you live, but summer in Fukuoka is very, very hot. Do you know what else is hot? Hell! So how about stopping by hell on your next trip to Japan? Okay, what I really mean are the hells of Beppu, a resort town in Oita prefecture on the east coast of Kyushu. Don't worry, instead of a place of eternal torment for wicked souls, they're just noxious, stinking pools of weird-colored water that can boil you alive or scald your flesh off if you touch them! Doesn't that sound like fun?

Beppu is a coastal town on a beautiful bay, with a great view of hills behind it. You can see steam rising from all its onsen bathouses, and it looks great lit up at night, too. That statue is of a businessman named Aburayama whose idea it was to develop Beppu as a hot spring resort. Yes, that is a naked baby holding onto his coat...please don't ask me about such things, as I don't know very much...That hell is called the Blood Hell! The reason is...well, I suppose the reason is a little obvious.

On the left is the Sea Hell, which is hot enough to cook eggs. On the right is the Monk's Head Hell, because those bubbles in the mud look like Buddhist monks' shaved heads! The hells get their color from minerals in the ground that come up with the water.

In one of the not-so-hot hells, the water is used to raise lotuses and water lilies. In another, crocodiles!

If one of these many dangerous things kills you in Beppu, don't worry! Friendly staff with bury your body in the dark sand to get rid of the evidence ^_^ Just kidding~ It's a sand bath. After you lie there for a while, you can rinse off in the hot spring. It's supposed to be very good for your body. Anyway, while Nami likes Beppu a lot, I suppose I prefer to stay inside reading...I hope to introduce you to someplace more historical next time Ja, ne!あみ(Ami)