Day 18
The eight hells of Beppu
Morning
The hells of Beppu
An hour and a half's drive north-east. Beppu produces more hot water than any other city in Japan, and ranks second in the world after Yellowstone: two thousand springs and more than ninety thousand tonnes a day. Seven sites, called jigoku, too hot to bathe in, are laid out to be looked at. The Umi Jigoku is a cobalt blue pool at ninety-eight degrees, the colour coming from iron sulphate. The Oniishi Bōzu bursts bubbles of grey mud that look like the shaven heads of monks. The Chinoike Jigoku, the hell of the blood pond, is brick red from iron oxide. The Tatsumaki Jigoku is a geyser that erupts every thirty to forty minutes.
Afternoon
Kaihin sand baths and Takasakiyama
At the sand baths of Beppu Kaihin, you are buried up to the neck in beach sand heated by the spring beneath, right on the shore: attendants shovel the sand over you and come to dig you out after ten minutes or so. The practice is attested here since the nineteenth century. The Takasakiyama, a hill south of the city, is home to fifteen hundred free-ranging Japanese macaques in two troops that take turns at the feeding ground according to a strict hierarchy, studied by primatologists since 1953.
Evening
Beppu viewpoint
Up on the heights, it shows the whole bay at night and the columns of steam rising from the spa districts, lit up: it is the view that earned the city the nickname of the city of a thousand smokes.
Good to know
A combined ticket covers all seven hells. Allow two to three hours including the travel, as the sites are split into two groups a few kilometres apart.
