Beppu Jigoku Meguri
Last Saturday afternoon I checked out the main tourist attraction of Beppu, the "Hells of Beppu" area! It was originally called that because hot water and steam was gushing from the ground everywhere, so that it was impossible to enter the area or develop it... But they did a pretty good job at developing it into a tourist attraction now! Sometimes I avoid places that are obvious "tourist traps", attactions built solely for the purpose of attracting tourists, but the Beppu Hells are a bit different because there's actually some really interesting things to see there. I didn't take a tour bus or anything to get around - most of the places looked pretty close to each other, so I figured if I just took a regular bus into the area, I could just walk to places.
You really don't wanna jump into that... >www<
The area honestly wasn't as busy as I expected! I was expecting it to be absolutely packed, but you could still walk around and look around you and actually see something besides just walls of people, so that's a win in my book for a place like this xD For some reason there was a HUGE line for one of the hells, Umi no Jigoku, because that's apparenly where tour buses drop off their tourists and where everyone tries to buy their combined ticket book for all the hells. But what they don't seem to know is that you can buy the ticket book at any of the places. The first one I went to happened to be Shiraike Jigoku and I was able to buy a ticket and walk in without waiting. After you had the ticket book, you could just put the ticket for each place into a box (very low tech) and skip any lines to just walk in.
Shiraike Jigoku was basically a "white pond" of super hot spring water =O I don't remember the exact physics, but each place has a different color and consistency because of whatever properties the soil has in that spot.
There was a little aquarium! Apparenty tropical fish like hot (warm?) spring water as well (I think they at least cool it down a bit and filter it for the fish though?? Or maybe the hot spings are only used for heating normal water? Who knows...)
I heard of capybaras chilling (toasting?) in hot springs, but alligators don't quite have that same cuddly factor...
It was cool to see them up close though =O
There were places selling eggs and vegetables steamed in the hot springs as well, so I got an egg as a snack :3
This little building looked like it could explode at any moment ^^; There was also steam rising from the drains in the street, probably more noticeable than usual because of the cold weather.
Kamado Jigoku... It was so blue =O A sign warned that the water temperature was 85 degrees
Muddy hot spring... The bubbles looked really interesting and... smooth
One of these "hells" was not like the other... "Yama Jigoku" is apparently a petting zoo? If this is hell, then I wouldn't mind going there
So fluffy and cuddly~~
Capybara! It had its own little onsen in the enclosure too, but despite how cold it was, it didn't feel like bathing today.
Flamingo
This was supposedly the hottest spring - you couldn't even see the water itself due to how much hot steam was coming off it =O
Apparently hot springs are also good for heating greenhouses and growing tropical flowers =O These water lilies (?) were really pretty, they were Ame-san and Kumo-san coloured!
After looking around the main area, I still had some time left, so I took the bus for a short while to the two "hells" further away. One was a geyser that apparently goes off every 30~40 minutes, but when I arrived it had just gone off and I didn't feel like waiting around for it... I read that it wasn't too impressive anyway because they built a roof (!!?) over it so that the hot water doesn't spray too far into the air. Then what's the point!? I'm sure the geyser I saw in Kawazu, Izu, was way more impressive...
The Chi no Ike or "blood pond" was pretty interesting though. It really did look like the "pond of blood" straight out of Dragonball or Hozuki no Reitetsu xD
Speaking of which... They must've done a collaboration event at some point and then left the character panels up because why not? (The stamp you could get here was only for the regular "hells tour" stamp rally, not Houzuki-themed)
I wonder how hot it is...
After I finished the hells tour, I decided to go to Shibaseki Onsen before getting on the bus back into town. I hadn't actually planned which onsen to go to (although I'd bookmarked a few - I figured I'd just see which one I ended up nearby to at the end of the day) but I hoped that the ones further removed from the main tourist attractions would be less crowded, so when I saw I had the time to go to this one, it was an easy choice. Apparently it's THE best value onsen in the Beppu area - for only 300 yen, you get two different temperatures of indoors baths, as well as a super unique steam bath (none of the other onsen in Beppu have it) in a seperate little wooden hut next to the outdoors bath. The outdoors bath itself was a temperature so comfortable that it almost felt cold if you go into it first (probably around 37 degrees, body temperature?), but it's perfect for AFTER you've been in the super hot steam bath. The locals were really friendly and welcoming to visitors as well! One old lady who talked to me apparently goes there every day to talk to the tourists, haha.
I completed my stamp rally (and got a few extra ones, too)! I did also stamp the sheet that you received with your ticket, but it's not as if you could win a prize or anything with it, so I mostly wanted them for my own book. (I stamped some sideways or upside down though because it's hard to tell when you're looking at the stamp itself, oops ^^; )
You really don't wanna jump into that... >www<
The area honestly wasn't as busy as I expected! I was expecting it to be absolutely packed, but you could still walk around and look around you and actually see something besides just walls of people, so that's a win in my book for a place like this xD For some reason there was a HUGE line for one of the hells, Umi no Jigoku, because that's apparenly where tour buses drop off their tourists and where everyone tries to buy their combined ticket book for all the hells. But what they don't seem to know is that you can buy the ticket book at any of the places. The first one I went to happened to be Shiraike Jigoku and I was able to buy a ticket and walk in without waiting. After you had the ticket book, you could just put the ticket for each place into a box (very low tech) and skip any lines to just walk in.
Shiraike Jigoku was basically a "white pond" of super hot spring water =O I don't remember the exact physics, but each place has a different color and consistency because of whatever properties the soil has in that spot.
There was a little aquarium! Apparenty tropical fish like hot (warm?) spring water as well (I think they at least cool it down a bit and filter it for the fish though?? Or maybe the hot spings are only used for heating normal water? Who knows...)
I heard of capybaras chilling (toasting?) in hot springs, but alligators don't quite have that same cuddly factor...
It was cool to see them up close though =O
There were places selling eggs and vegetables steamed in the hot springs as well, so I got an egg as a snack :3
This little building looked like it could explode at any moment ^^; There was also steam rising from the drains in the street, probably more noticeable than usual because of the cold weather.
Kamado Jigoku... It was so blue =O A sign warned that the water temperature was 85 degrees
Muddy hot spring... The bubbles looked really interesting and... smooth
One of these "hells" was not like the other... "Yama Jigoku" is apparently a petting zoo? If this is hell, then I wouldn't mind going there
So fluffy and cuddly~~
Capybara! It had its own little onsen in the enclosure too, but despite how cold it was, it didn't feel like bathing today.
Flamingo
This was supposedly the hottest spring - you couldn't even see the water itself due to how much hot steam was coming off it =O
Apparently hot springs are also good for heating greenhouses and growing tropical flowers =O These water lilies (?) were really pretty, they were Ame-san and Kumo-san coloured!
After looking around the main area, I still had some time left, so I took the bus for a short while to the two "hells" further away. One was a geyser that apparently goes off every 30~40 minutes, but when I arrived it had just gone off and I didn't feel like waiting around for it... I read that it wasn't too impressive anyway because they built a roof (!!?) over it so that the hot water doesn't spray too far into the air. Then what's the point!? I'm sure the geyser I saw in Kawazu, Izu, was way more impressive...
The Chi no Ike or "blood pond" was pretty interesting though. It really did look like the "pond of blood" straight out of Dragonball or Hozuki no Reitetsu xD
Speaking of which... They must've done a collaboration event at some point and then left the character panels up because why not? (The stamp you could get here was only for the regular "hells tour" stamp rally, not Houzuki-themed)
I wonder how hot it is...
After I finished the hells tour, I decided to go to Shibaseki Onsen before getting on the bus back into town. I hadn't actually planned which onsen to go to (although I'd bookmarked a few - I figured I'd just see which one I ended up nearby to at the end of the day) but I hoped that the ones further removed from the main tourist attractions would be less crowded, so when I saw I had the time to go to this one, it was an easy choice. Apparently it's THE best value onsen in the Beppu area - for only 300 yen, you get two different temperatures of indoors baths, as well as a super unique steam bath (none of the other onsen in Beppu have it) in a seperate little wooden hut next to the outdoors bath. The outdoors bath itself was a temperature so comfortable that it almost felt cold if you go into it first (probably around 37 degrees, body temperature?), but it's perfect for AFTER you've been in the super hot steam bath. The locals were really friendly and welcoming to visitors as well! One old lady who talked to me apparently goes there every day to talk to the tourists, haha.
I completed my stamp rally (and got a few extra ones, too)! I did also stamp the sheet that you received with your ticket, but it's not as if you could win a prize or anything with it, so I mostly wanted them for my own book. (I stamped some sideways or upside down though because it's hard to tell when you're looking at the stamp itself, oops ^^; )