A hell of a day

With less than 6 months left in Japan the time has come to decide which places & events are still on our 'must-see' list. My number one is without a doubt the Geisha Spring Dances in Kyoto during April (fingers crossed I make it!), but a trip to our neighbouring province Oita has been on the wishlist for ages as well. When Yasuko had her friend Spencer visiting from California last month it was the perfect opportunity for all of us -except Vaughan, who couldn't make it- to be tourists again & explore Beppu, Oita's star attraction. Beppu is Japan's onsen -hot spring- capital, a major tourist spot with the largest volume of hot water in the world aside from Yellowstone in the US! The city contains nine major geothermal hot spots, which are often referred to as the "nine hells of Beppu". Local tourist brochures recommend a visit to Beppu to witness the many aspects of hell because "only those who have been through hell and lived to recount the experience, are worthy to be called real human beings". Huh? They continue to wax lyrically about the similarities between the natural hot springs & the hellish depths of Dante's 'Inferno' but I'm not convinced the onsen atmosphere was indeed "charged with magnificence and a hint of terror". Sounds to me like whoever wrote this was suffering from a severe case of literary exaggeration...

The sight of Umi-Jigoku, a 200 m deep cobalt-blue pond of boiling water was certainly impressive though, and one of only two "hells" I saw that day (the others paid a hefty fee to visit all of the sites). Yasuko & Ikumi claim that the sulphurous steam is good for the skin, a "natural facial", so they fully enjoyed the moment! Aah, very few pleasures compare to those of soaking in natural hot springs on an icy winter's day :-). Nami & Yasuko (back row) opted out of this but Ikumi & I staid there until our legs looked like they'd been boiled to perfection. Chinoike-Jigoku is Japan's oldest natural hot spring and contains red clay that's apparently very effective for skin diseases. Maybe that's why the gift shop was larger in size than the actual spring itself ;-). Amazing phenomenon though & well worth returning with Vaughan in the next few months!