Beppu

---

A nice welcome back from travelling was our first field trip of the new semester to Beppu. Beppu is a famous onsen town (hot springs) and is somewhere I'd been looking forward to visiting for a while.

Our first stop was Usa shrine. I was really lucky to come back to beautiful blue weather which made it a pleasure to walk around the vast gardens of the shrine. The shrine itself was maybe one of the best I've seen so far in Japan. It was a really deep redy-orangey colour which was emphasised by its contrast with the blue sky. Whilst I was there I got bought one of the fortunes in order to see what my luck was like! I asked one of the Japanese tutors to translate it for me and this is roughly what it said:

1) Overall bad luck

2) Think before you act (anyone who knows me will know that is goes against my personality entirely)

3) I must have a goal in order to be successful in Education

4) I will find luck below me (?!?)

5) positive luck in love

I've bought these fortunes a few times in Japan, most people do it when they visit shrines but more often than not I get bad luck! I had one where I got the best luck and I keep this in my purse. When you get bad luck you are supposed to tie it to the dedicated posts and leave it there at the shrine.

After the shrine, we made our way to our hotel for the night but not before stopping at a view point which offered incredible views of the countryside and the sea.

I was really impressed with the hotel we stayed in! Especially since the trip had been free. It was a traditional Japanese hotel (ryokan) but a really fancy one. We were assigned rooms to stay in which meant I wasn't with the people I normally spend time with but this was nice as it meant I got to speak with some new people, especially since there were new students staying in my room too.

That evening we were given an amazing banquet dinner in true Japanese style. They gave us SO much food. Just when you thought you'd finished they'd bring out another course. I enjoyed everything they gave me other than this savoury egg custard dish. I've seen it on menus before but never got round to trying it. It is a watery eggy jelly like custard with a clam, prawn, mushrooms and radish in it. I'm glad I tried it but I wont be doing so again!! The breakfast the following morning was a buffet and it had loads of western food as well as Japanese stuff so its safe to say that they fed us very well in that hotel!

After dinner was onsen time. As I said before, Beppu is famous for its onsens so we were taken to a really nice one a few minutes away from the hotel. By now, I'm very used to the whole being naked thing when in an onsen. I don't even think twice about it. I guess I've adapted to Japanese culture! This onsen was a really good one with a number of different baths both inside and out. They were different temperatures and had different minerals in. There was also a sauna too. My favourite one was the outside bath as it was like a rock pool and the cold air outside makes the hot bath more bearable.

Since we had an onsen at our hotel too (and it was a very nice hotel), we wanted to give that one a try. So when it was time to leave we didnt bother with a shower and just threw on our clothes so that we could head straight to the other onsen when we got back. In hotels they always change the male and female one around depending on the time of day. During the evening, the females got the better one which also had an outside bath, so I was really happy I gave it a try.

After the onsen, we had a little gathering in one of the rooms. Almost all the students came along and so it was really fun. We had a few drinks and began playing cards against humanity. If you don't know what that is you should google it, basically its the most British humour style game ever. Therefore, in a room full of students from all over the world it didn't go down too well. Oops. Nevertheless we had fun and it was funny to see that our German and Dutch friend found it hilarious too.. .clearly they've been spending too much time with British people!

The following day we went to a monkey park and then to an aquarium. I was excited for the monkey park after visiting the one in Kyoto. This one was a little different as you couldn't feed the monkeys, however there were a lot more of them including lots of babies which were SO cute. Whist we were there it was feeding time and one of the staff members came out with a bucket of food. The monkeys all knew what that meant and at once, hundreds of them all ran towards him which was great to watch!

The aquarium was awesome! There were so many different things there such as glowing jellyfish, otters and even a walrus! I'd never seen a walrus in real life before. The dolphin show was also the best I had ever seen. Nevertheless, I felt that the tank they were in was far too small. This is a running theme in Japan in zoos and aquariums. Whilst they are really good in that you can get close to the animals, it must be said that they're not the nicest of places for them to live!

Our final stop, after yet another banquet style meal for lunch, was Uminojikoku which is one of seven 'burning pools of hell' in Beppu. It is a famous onsen town because of its natural hot springs and these pools are the hottest ones which are too hot for people to bathe in. The colour of the them was different depending on the minerals in it and they had steam pouring our of them. There was a mini foot spa that we were allowed to dip our feet in but other than that we were forbidden from entering the pools since we would literally boil to death!

Beppu definitely didn't disappoint. It is a lovely little city that sits on the coast and the onsens there really live up to the hype. I'd love to go back there (especially since they have a zoo that does night time safaris!!) but unfortunately, with only a few very busy weeks left in Japan, I don't think I'll have the time. I guess I'll just have to make sure I come back to Japan!

---