June 10

06/10/2013

Woke up late -- I'd say that the exhaustion of all this travel is catching up with me!    Oh well!

Went to find out where breakfast (came with the room is).   Went downstairs and they said "10th floor", which of course was right on the little ticket I had... 

Went up to 10th and found the restaurant -- nice view, but mostly of the concrete city.    I could see

smoke rising from the natural hot springs but not sure its all that visible in the photo.   I'm sure when I get to the "hells" later today (my plan) I'll see plenty!

Anyway, I've been spoiled by many high end ryokan's over the last two weeks -- breakfast (which I 

ordered Japanese style) was as expected but not "up to standards" with the high end snob I fear I've become.   I ate some of it but left a lot as it just wasn't exciting (nothing bad mind you, just not great)

Here are the required photos:

Headed back to the room and packed my day bag (with towel and change of shirt) and headed back to beppu station with my "bus pass" that I bought when arriving.   Its a "one paper gets you on all the buses" so you don't have think thing.

Just outside the station was a very strange statue -- I'm sure there is a story, but I couldn't find it.   I may ask tomorrow --

Tried to figure out the bus system, but in the end just took a leap of faith and got on "bus number 2" which appeared to be headed in the right direction.   Used my iphone maps app to track us towards the hells, which was good.    Turns out it was the last stop anyway -- took about 25 - 30 minutes.

Had a little broken english/japanese talk with the lady at the last stop station and she pointed me up the street about 2 blocks.   Found my first "hell" where I bought a ticket for all the hells and started wandering through.   Turns out all but 2 of the hells are located within about a 3-4 block area, so easy walk.

WHITE POND HELL

Headed up half a block to the next hell--

ONIYAMA HELL:

Exited this Hell and headed just up the road to the next one, but at the "door" to the hell I was greeted by the resident house cat!    

Anyway, onto the hell:

The nice thing about this "Oven Hell" was that you got the option of eating!   They had hard boiled eggs steamed or boiled from the hell, along with a spongy manju bread.   You also could take a "foot bath" (the water was about 80C, which is VERY hot, but nice)

And a "mid hell" foot soak for me:

Then onto the next hell -- the "Mountain Hell", which was also a bit of a zoo (literally!)

Here's a video of one "turning":

Then onto the next hell -- "Sea Hell"

And a video of this shot:

And onto the next hell!  Oniishibozu Jigoku -- a "Milk" Hell in my book, though I think its "mud bubble hell"

Here's a video of it "burping":

This hell (behind it) had an onsen you could pay $6 to use so I took a late morning soak.   No pictures of course, but it was very nice -- both an inside and outside bath area.    

That was the "clump" of hells in this area, so I walked back to the bus station and hung out for about 20 minutes waiting for "bus 16A" to take me to the last two hells.   While I was there I met a nice english speaking japanese couple who had come from a visit in China.    We chatted a while and they were also going to the same hell as I, so it made the ride easy!

BLOOD POND HELL

Onto the last Hell, which is a geyser!   I had about a 20 minute wait until the next eruption so I was forced to buy some manju (for later) AND some blueberry ice cream for then!

I will add some videos later -- have to get a small one, but have one of the geyser going!

Here it is:

That was it for the hells.   I had a bit of wait until bus 26A would arrive to take me back to the base of the other hells, so I walked back to the last Hell's parking lot where there was a restaurant that had a "dessert set" available for about $5.    Had some lemon chiffon cake and tea;

Eventually got the first bus back to the start of the other hells, then hopped on bus #5 which went all the way back to Beppu Station.    Headed back to the hotel, but on the way decided to get a little more cash for the rest of the trip (Post Office) and there was a department store right next door so I went downstairs and bought another little cake-roll treat to take back to the hotel:

I did some blog updating from last night and then went to sleep for an hour.   After waking up I decided that I should try and walk over to the "sand bath" (where they bury you in warm sand).    It was only about 6 blocks away, though in a bit of a seedy (night club) area.   However, it was only about 4PM so no big deal.    The building itself was a huge barn like structure and very "traditional" looking.  For about $10 you get the sand treatment followed by a nice onsen hot bath.   The write up said it was REALLY hot, but I have adjusted and found it just fine.   They allow cameras in most of the onsen, so lots of pictures follow:

That was nice... walked back to the hotel and updated the blog...

Still not feeling like a major meal, so I asked at the front desk for a tempura/katsu place and was directed to the Beppu Station terminal which has a small set of food places attached.   Ended up getting what amounts to katsu-chicken (almost a tempura battered chicken) with the miso and assorted veggies and white rice for dinner.    More than enough for me tonight -- eating on the cheap at only about $9.80 for the entire meal.    Of course it came with tea.   Will upload a picture or two later.    Actually it was better than the breakfast at the hotel! 

Also stopped at one of those bread-type-shops that was closing up and bought a little treat for later.

I think its basically a jin-doi (sesame ball with bean curd) but I won't find out until later tonight.

Will probably try out the other onsen on the 3rd floor (its "men" from 19:00 - 22:00 on that floor vs the one I used yesterday earlier on the 2nd floor).