I got up early thinking I’d have a soak somewhere, and where I ended up was Beppu’s hell tour. It’s seven hot-spring theme parks, each called a “hell,” but for hot-spring theme parks you can’t actually bathe in any of them -_-;; What’s up with that… Anyway, it was fun, so I’m not complaining…
Tatsumaki Jigoku (Spout Hell)
Of the seven hells, the first one we went to was Tatsumaki Jigoku, the one located farthest away. It’s famous for its geyser, but I didn’t go because it appealed to me; I’d bought the bundle of seven tickets, so I couldn’t really skip it. Well… there really wasn’t much to it.
It shoots up like this, apparently…
Sometimes a rainbow appears partway through. It’s kind of neat, but… hmm… when you’re told this costs 500 yen, you’re left speechless…
Chinoike Jigoku (Blood Pond Hell)
The color of the spring water is unusual, isn’t it?
This is what it looks like…
Of them all, I think this one lived up to the name “hell” the best.
Kamado Jigoku, which means “cooking pot hell.”
This place has all sorts of hot-spring facilities.
This is a hot-stone bath just for your feet
I tried it myself, and it really took the tiredness out ^_^
Drinkable hot spring water
No idea about the water; the cups were dirty, so I didn’t drink any…
This is Oniyama Jigoku
The main attraction here is crocodiles. I went in thinking, why crocodiles at a hot spring, do crocodiles soak in hot water like Japanese macaques? But it’s fun in its own way. After a while I was thinking, well, whatever.
Crocodiles sleeping like they’re dead
Crocodiles waiting to be fed
Hot-spring corn, hot-spring sweet potato, hot-spring egg
The crocodiles must have been hungry, but so was I, so I ordered these. Maybe because Oita Prefecture is so rural, the corn was incredibly sweet. Juice just running down… The main character of Detroit Metal City is from Oita, and now I totally get it. So he grew up in a place with corn this good… I imagine Negishi probably liked Yufuin. The hot-spring egg just tasted like a plain boiled egg, and that seems to be because here they don’t boil them in the hot water, they steam them with the spring’s vapor. You have to eat them quickly before they cool down.
The crocodile feeding show is about to start.
The crocodiles jump like puppies, which was really cute.
They snap it right up.
This is how they steam things.
There’s even a Buddhist statue like this…
Somehow it suits the hellish scenery. Enjoy the remaining four hells in the next post…