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Published: February 25th 2007
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umi jigoku (ocean hell).
A beautiful blue! I know I’ve been lazy about the blog entries lately, but there’s really not much going on here…besides me being busy. Luckily spring is in the air and the plum blossoms and daffodils have already started blooming. The days are getting warmer, and I’m using my kotatsu less (so long old pal). Things will start to get exciting in a couple weeks though when my friend from West Virginia comes to visit me! We have a lot planned, so I’ll make sure to fill you in on all the details then.
But as for events of the past month: I recently took a weekend trip to the most southern island of the four main islands of Japan, Kyushu. I went with a group of English teachers to celebrate Ethan’s birthday on February 12th. We went to the touristy town of Beppu. It is touristy because the town is located above ground that is heated by geothermal soil from the nearby volcano, Mt. Aso. Because of this, there is steam rising up from the ground all over the town. Beppu is known for its onsen (hot spring baths) and the so called “boiling hells of Beppu” (geothermal, mineral-rich pools).
These
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A basket of eggs boiling in umi jigoku attractions were interesting to see, but the atmosphere was ruined by so many tacky, touristy side attractions, like the “Beppu African Safari,” the sex museum (which looked like nothing more than a building full of porn), and other tourist traps. On top of that the town itself seemed to be a bit on the sketchy side. Most noticeably were the countless tinted-window Japanese nationalist-type buses with huge loud speakers attached that could be heard wherever we went. We never got the full story on these buses, but one of our cab drivers told us they were the yakuza (Japanese mafia). I wouldn’t be surprised if they were the Yakuza either. There were police officers everywhere in full riot garb with big shields and everything. Something was definitely going on, but we just couldn’t figure out what it was. All of the buses had huge Japanese flags and the popular wartime rising sun flag waving off the back. I have heard from several Japanese people that this type of flag is not very welcome in Japan anymore and carries bad connotations from the war. Most Japanese people dislike it and don’t consider it a flag of Japan anymore. We were visiting
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Me in the foot bath. Kimochiiii! Beppu during the holiday weekend of Japan’s national foundation day…which may have had something to do with it. But these folks inside the creepy buses were not your ordinary Japanese folks. I saw one guy through the front window which was not painted over black. He actually looked like he was from the wartime or from some cheesy martial art movie. He was really old and wrinkly with the kung-fu-movie type beard that went all the way down to his waist, where it ended at a point. He had the long grey hair to match the look. It was definitely a creepy and confusing scene.
Other than that, there was the large number of strip/hostess/brothel clubs lining the back streets of the town. In order to find any restaurants or onsen, I had to walk through these disturbing alleys. There was the suggestion that these establishments exist due to the fact that the town is a hot spring bath town, but I don’t really think that’s the reason. Japanese onsen aren’t the same as stories I’ve heard about Turkish baths (which also exist in Japan). There is nothing sexual about them, and they exist only to cleanse the body
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A view of the steam rising up from the town of Beppu. and mind. I think the sleazy part of the town probably emerged from the growing tourist population, which is disappointing.
Other than the bad parts of Beppu, the weather was wonderful. Blue skies everyday, and because we had traveled south, the air was much warmer. During the warmest part of the days we could even take our jackets off. The reason we went to Beppu was because of the onsen (of course), but, because of bad time management, we were unable to go to any onsen until the evening of our last night. The onsen that we had really wanted to try out were personal (small group size) onsen inside old-style straw-thatched-roof huts. They were up in the hills, a little ways away from the town. We went all the way up there and found out that there would be a three-hour wait for us to use one. Like I said…bad time management. By that time everyone was hungry and feeling a little ill from breathing in the sulfuric fumes that you can’t seem to hide from in this town. So we went all the way back down to the town.
We decided to go check out the
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The mud hell. Nothing quite like bubbling mud. oldest onsen in the town which was located right in the center of the city in a big old building. They had sand baths there too, which was the real reason we went. But, again, when we got there, they said it would be an hour wait for the sand baths, but we could get in the onsen immediately. So we settled for just the onsen. I had to go by myself since the other women were not interested and they have a separate bath for the guys. Luckily everyone in the women’s bath was really friendly. They were all curious about why I was living in Japan (none of them had ever heard of the island I’m living on…of course). So, good conversations in the tub, as usual (unfortunately, I heard from the guys that it was a different story on their side). The best part about the bath was the building it was in. I definitely felt like I was transported back in time when nobody had private baths in their homes and everyone went to the public bath.
The “boiling hells” that I mentioned earlier were pretty interesting too. Each one contained a different type of
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Shiro Jigoku (white hell). mineral that made its color different. There was the ocean hell (bright blue), the blood hell (bright red), the white hell, and the mud hell. The specialty food of the area is boiled eggs, cooked right in the boiling hells. And why not? Everything already smelled like eggs because of the sulfur fumes. The eggs were pretty good though, I must admit, although I think I ate one too many and became a little ill. One of the boiling hells had a foot bath that was hard to get out of once you put your feet in. It had fruit floating around in it (I’m not sure why), and it made your feet feel so wonderful (especially after walking around on them all day). After I finally did get out, the minerals of the bath made my feet feel tingly for about an hour afterwards. It was quite refreshing.
Other than site seeing and onsen, we did a lot of bowling and karaoke (because no trip is complete without these things). Our first bowling game, I actually came in first or second (I can’t remember now), which is great because I usually lose badly. But the second time we
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more eggs cooking in the boiling hells bowled I lost badly as usual. Karaoke was typical, with me stealing the mic from everyone because I just can’t keep silent when there’s loud singing and a microphone, no matter how bad my voice is. I even sang a song in German with a guy we met down there only to find out (to my embarrassment) that he actually was German, and therefore I must have totally ruined the song for him. Oops.
Well, those are the highlights of the trip. Thanks for reading!
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alessandro
non-member comment
I really enjoyed reading your blog !!!! it makes me want to visite this little islande called yuge ;) hope you'll continu writing ;0