Day 47: 17 May 2009

LOCATION: BEPPU
MOOD: RUSHED
LISTENING TO: BLINK-182 – FEELING THIS

TRAVELLER'S TALES:

Luckily I hadn't had that much to drink the previous night so when I woke up I was ready to head to my next stop, the onsen-rich coastal town of Beppu. It was probably a good thing that I had managed to get out of going to the club the previous night as I was greeted on my way down by the American who was bleary eyed and stumbling up the steps. As it turned out he had forgotten his keys and locked himself out, so he had spent the entire night in the foyer. Sounded like a good night to me.

When I got downstairs I saw that the Brit had also checked out, and we soon discovered that we were headed in the same direction. He was going to Fukuoka, and I was heading to Beppu via Fukuoka. There was a more direct route, but because that route required a number of changes and didn't have any express services it was actually faster to go back to Fukuoka and then out again to Beppu. By way of explanation, Nagasaki is on the west coast of Kyushu while Beppu is on the east. Fukuoka is in the north near the bridge to the main island of Honshu.

The two hour trip didn't seem quite as long now that I had a travel partner, and we whiled away the time by discussing our travel plans and, for some reason, our love lives. As it turns out the Brit had a couple of years on me and had some interesting stories to tell, while the best that I could muster were my somewhat on-again-off-again half-romances. I gave him a couple of pointers about Fukuoka, and before we knew it we had arrived. I had an extremely quick connection so I bade him goodbye, wished him good luck and ran to catch my train.

YOU MIGHT HAVE AN UMBRELLA BUT YOU'RE STILL GONNA GET WET:

A couple of hours later I arrived in Beppu and was greeted by storm clouds and light rain. I trundled out of the station and headed for my hostel but was suddenly struck by an intense hunger and light headedness. I hadn't had anything for lunch (I'd been on the train), and the heavy schedule the previous day was probably a factor. I looked around in vain for a restaurant but the best that I could find was a vending machine. I got myself a can of Pepsi to boost my blood sugar and made it to a 7-Eleven where I bought a Snickers, promptly devouring it. That gave me enough strength to get to my hostel and get set up before heading out for lunch.

I'm not sure whether it's just me, but it seems like the clouds hang lower in Japan. Maybe it's just because the buildings are taller...?

My ceremonial shot of the view from in front of the station. In picture was this fountain with some special significance, but it was too crowded with giggly teenage girls for me to investigate.

By the time I finished eating and got back to the hostel it was already late in the afternoon and I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to get anything done before I had to leave the next day. Luckily there were a couple of helpful people who assisted me in getting my plans together. There was a Japanese live-in worker who was staying in my dorm who gave me a couple of recommendations, and the middle aged lady at the information counter at the station was also extremely helpful. She even ran to catch me at the bus stop to give me more discount coupons that she had forgotten to initially.

Beppu is famous for its natural hot springs, which fall into two categories: onsen, which are for bathing, and jigoku, which are for viewing. There are all sorts of onsen from straight up baths to more exotic fare such as sand baths in geothermal-heated sand and mud baths. The jigoku also come in various flavours, with each manifesting in a unique and spectacular fashion. Among those listed in the brochure were jigoku that caused water to appear different colours (sky blue, blood red, etc), jigoku that involved volcanic mud and jigoku that were traditional geysers along the lines of Old Faithful in the States. As an interesting aside (and one that the travel guides are quick to point out), jigoku translates literally as 'hell'.

Luckily for me a number of the jigokus are bunched close together so I managed to see two before closing time (around 5PM). The first one was the Umi-jigoku (Sea Hell) which featured a hot, milky turquoise water that constantly emitted a massive plume of steam. The hot spring itself was surrounded by a number of nice gardens and even a foot onsen where you could rest your tired feet by giving them a soak in the hot waters.

The entrance to Umi-jigoku. Looks closer to paradise than hell. That big plume of steam is where the actual geyser is.

The steam, while impressive from afar, can be troublesome up close.

It's best to wait for a breeze to give you a better look at the goods.

Even on a rainy day near closing time there was still a crowd.

I've been to hell and back. Here's the proof.
(The sign reads: Umi-jigoku)

The Umi-jigoku park also included this mini-jigoku. My cameraman was kind enough to wait for a strong breeze to carry away most of the steam before taking a picture.

The jigoku pictured above came with this handy signage. Obviously it had happened in the past.

Foot spas. A godsend for the weary journeyman.

The second one was the adjacent Yama-jigoku (Mountain Jigoku). The Lonely Planet Guide had counseled me to avoid the place for animal cruelty reasons but given that everything was closing rapidly I decided it was worth a shot. The actual hot spring at Yama-jigoku is nothing spectacular; it's just a pit of bubbling hot water.

Woohoo!

The sign was often obscured by the steam. Maybe they should have put it on the outside.

What makes the place interesting is that they've transformed the plot of land into a small zoo featuring a pretty random selection of animals ranging from flamingos and peacocks to hippos and elephants. The conditions weren't too bad for the birds and monkeys but the conditions in which the larger animals were kept were pretty squalid. I felt especially bad for the elephant who literally couldn't move in his cage (he was let out into the yard at certain points during the day).

If peacocks were human, I think we would say that they're trying to compensate for something.

Flamingos, on the other hand, are clearly very comfortable with their sexuality.

The only presentable primates I could find. The rest all seemed to be too interested in each other's behinds.

That's right - Llamas.

I really considered giving this poor elephant a Free Willy moment (a la Bart and Stampy in that Simpsons episode), but I had the bad feeling that he might end up mistakenly charging into the Umi-jigoku.

I found this sign particularly ironic, especially given the picture directly above.

The hippo's lot was a little better, but not by much.

The enclosure actually closed while I was still in it so I had to jump the gate to get out. After that I was faced with the dilemma of what to do with the rapidly dwindling day light. Luckily the onsens open later than the jigoku so I made my way to the closest one. The onsen was perched on a hilltop with quite nice views, and I passed by some of the other jigokus and took a peek over the low-lying walls.

I can't remember what this jigoku was supposed to be.

I couldn't see into the pits, but I could imagine yakuza bringing rivals here and dangling them over the railing. I'm not sure why these odd thoughts come to me, but they do.

Essentially the protocol with onsens is that you get your kit off in the change rooms and then make your way through the various baths. The first one is usually indoors, and has shower heads built around the sides for your to wash and clean yourself off before getting into the water. The idea is that the bath is meant to rejuvenate you, not clean you.

Following the inside bath I made my way out to the two outside baths, one on the first floor and the second on the second floor. The upstairs one had especially nice views. Onsens have a really laid back atmosphere (I guess you have to take it easy when everyone's naked otherwise the whole experience would be too awkward) and I was able to listen in on a couple of conversations. People normally come in groups; you'll come into contact with families, groups of friends and work colleagues. School aged kids coming from sports also seem to dig the onsen experience.

The road leading back into town from the mountains. It was either a relaxing night at the hostel or the mud baths, and I decided that it was time to slip, slop and slap.

LET'S GET DIRRRRTY:

As relaxing as that first onsen had been it was pretty much the same as you can expect from onsen anywhere in Japan; a nice hot bath with a view. Beppu is famous for its quirky, unique onsen, and the two I had been recommended were the sand baths and the mud baths. The sand baths were all closed by this point so I opted for the mud bath. I took the bus to the closest one which lay up in the mountains overlooked by a highway.

One can only hope that none of the motorists on the bridge had binoculars or long-lens SLRs.

The first onsen had been a fairly small operation, but this one was pretty huge by comparison. I didn't really see many people in the entrance hall and the guy at the counter wasn't exactly friendly, so I had to figure out the operation myself. I walked down the long outdoor corridor to the change rooms and did as I had before; I got my kit off, scrubbed up and got into the first bath, which was a standard one.

That was where things started to get weird. There wasn't a clearly marked path so I followed the sign saying mud bath. This took me down into this underground grotto-like space that had a pool of murky brown water and wooden planks. The whole setup reminded me very much of a mine shaft. I wasn't exactly sure whether this was where I was supposed to be but I decided that since the sign had pointed me here I should take a dip. I didn't really calm down until another guy came in around ten minutes later. The water was pretty chilly and the mud felt squelchy under my toes. Suffice to say it wasn't the most relaxing experience.

Having had enough of that I ventured out into the open air where there was another mud bath with pretty spectacular views. There was this middle aged guy sitting at the pool stark naked with his legs in the water and a pretty blank look on his face but apart from that there wasn't anyone else there. The whole experience was pretty eerie. I got into the water and thankfully it was warm this time. I tried to keep myself submurged to my neck as much as possible given that there was a pretty chilly wind whipping through at the time, and I busied myself with enjoying the view.

I think I must have stayed in that bath for around half an hour before getting up to explore around. There were a couple of other open air baths, but most were variations on the same theme. At that point a couple more guys started appearing and I realised that all of them had little white loincloths, which for some reason I hadn't been given or told about. I then saw a sign saying that the baths were mixed and I realised why they had the loincloths. Well, that and the fact that the whole complex was overlooked by a highway bridge. At that point my thoughts turned to finding a shower and getting up out of there. After a bit of running around using my hands as a figurative fig leaf and asking for directions I gave up trying to find the showers and went back to the initial bath to use the shower heads there. I washed off as much of the mud as possible and towelled myself off, got changed and headed out to catch the bus.

I CAN'T GET THIS SMELL OUT OF MY BIRTHDAY SUIT:

It took me a while to catch a bus back into town. For some reason they had built the bus shelter facing away from the oncoming bus, meaning that I didn't see the first bus until it passed me. The second time round I got up and stood in front of the bus stand, but it still passed me for some reason. I actually had to step out onto the road and flag the third bus down before I managed to hitch a ride.

I'm not sure when exactly I became aware of it, but at some point during the twenty-something minute ride back to the town's centre I realised that there was a strange funk emitting from my clothes. The mud baths had smelled earthy while I was in them, but now the smell was starting to change into something approaching rotting eggs. I opened up my bag and was immediately hit by the smell. Despite washing myself off my shirt and towel were steeped in the smell, and even taking a whiff of my forearm gave me a pretty strong hit.

I figured that I hadn't washed myself properly so the first thing that I did when I got back to the hostel was go for another bath. I picked scrubbed myself with soap pretty thoroughly and then soaked in the communal bath for around half an hour with a Greek-born British heart surgeon who was on a three week vacation. Thinking that should do the trick I got out of the bath and went to dry myself off when I realised that I only had my stench-infested towel. Figuring that there was no point in using that I used my clean t-shirt to dry myself off and decided to do a load of laundry to purge the smell.

I left my laundry at the local coin laundromat and headed into town for some dinner. Coming back I put the clothes in the dryer and got myself a coffee from the vending machine down the street. I came back, pulled my towel out of the dryer, raised it to my nose and...was hit by the stench, as strong as ever. Now I was starting to freak out a little. To make matters worse, everything else in the wash was starting to smell as well.

By this point it was pretty late in the evening and the reception was closed so I quarantined the infected articles in plastic bags and went to bed, figuring that I could deal with the problem the next day.