Japan June 2011 - Day 3 - Beppu

The Kobe - Beppu Shinkansen trip is 4 hrs so we decided to leave in the morning to get to Beppu by lunchtime. We arrived at Beppu station and headed to a ryokan/hotel that my bf had booked - it was a fair distance from the main train station and dragging our luggage with us made it all a little bit harder. First impressions of Beppu was that it was a strange town. Renowned for previously being a red-light district town, and then becoming more known for hot-springs the place is apparently quite popular with local tourists and is seen as a bit of a tacky hot spring 'theme park' style town. Knowing this we were only using Beppu to serve as a stopover before heading into the Aso region, and I certainly think that this is all Beppu really should be. It is not an attractive town and doesn't really seem to be that appealing. If you were to travel here I would suggest staying in one of the nicer ryokan out of town, staying in the central area wouldn't be that beneficial.

However, despite all that negativity our hotel-style ryokan was still good. It was on the waterfront (which wasn't a lovely waterfront to be honest but it looks like they have plans to develop/beautify it), we had a Japanese style room which was of standard quality but it also had a small balcony overlooking the water with a little cedar foot bath hot spring which was a nice touch. Especially after having walked from the train station! The hotel also has women’s & men’s hot springs on the 6th level, as well as a rooftop onsen that can be reserved.

The building itself is a large hotel-ish building, all buildings in Beppu itself seem to look quite shabby and worn - I think a combination of that bad era of Japanese concrete structures, proximity to the sea, humidity and hot springs everywhere.

Dinner was quite a nice surprise, as with most Ryokan we were served kaseiki cuisine - about 12 dishes which were all delicious and of great quality. Dinner was served not in-room but in a level with a number of separated rooms, some with western tables and chairs, some with Japanese lowered tables, most of which were overlooking the water. Breakfast was also served in these rooms and was also delicious!

Man holes all over Japan have decorative location-specific covers

Seikaiso room with ocean view

Foot bath in our room overlooking the ocean

view from the room

Seikaiso dinner, over 12 little courses which were all delicious

Our futons laid out at night

Sunrise over the ocean! It was hot and humid so the morning was complete fog

Breakfast at Seikaiso which was also nice

Shop shutters painted with Beppu icons

Going back to when we arrived though, we weren't really sure what to do with our day - we only had a half day left, it was hot, quiet and not that many of Beppus activities appealed to us. There were the 'hell pools' scattered around the town but I wasn't particularly interested in these. One thing I desperately wanted to do was a sand bath but being so hot already it didn't seem like the greatest idea. Luckily we saw that Takegawara Onsen was actually open until 10pm so we decided that we would relax a little and keep out of the heat during the day and then have a sand bath at Takegawara after dinner.

Takegawara is the most famous onsen in Beppu and is certainly a must-do if you are there. I didn't go into any of the hot spring onsen so I can’t comment on those but the real event here is the sand bath. The process is similar to having a dip in a hot spring but reversed. You completely undress and put on a yukuta that Takegawara provide. Then you are taken to a large area of black volcanic sand inside the building and lie down. A lady will help you with this and also ensure you have a little mound to place your head on comfortably, before shovelling piles and piles of volcanic sand on top of you to cover everything except your head. Although they don’t stop there, they will also push sand up around your head so that your shoulders are enveloped in the heat. Then... you wait for TEN minutes. These could be the longest ten minutes of your life. They were for me, after about 30 seconds I was already feeling like I needed to burst out. Sweat was dripping off my face, the pressure and heat of the sand was intense and uncomfortable but I managed to get through the ten minutes. Before we burst out the ladies took photos of us with our cameras (you can take them in and pop them in the basket beside the sand) and then patted all the sand off our yukuta. Then it was time to shower, get all the sand off and dip in the onsen.

After the onsen you do feel amazingly refreshed, and supposedly the process is actually really good for your health and releasing toxins in the blood. It was definitely an experience and I would certainly do it again.

Once we had finished our sand bath we headed down the back streets of Beppu and strolled around a couple of red-light lanes before heading back to the hotel. By the time we got there it was around 9.45 and I think the man on staff looked a little annoyed we came in that late. There was nothing said about curfew and when we left before 9 we handed our key into staff who didn't say anything so I am not sure if there is a curfew here or if we should have mentioned how long we would be? (I didn't think 9.45 was late!) Most traditional ryokan have a curfew but as this was a hotel-style setup I didn't even think about curfews - whoops!

My only photo of Takegawara in the dark

hot steamy photo in the sand bath, sorry for the creepy blurred out faces

So all in all - Beppu is not the greatest tourist destination, especially in Japan where there are so many amazing options - however staying on the outskirts of Beppu and coming in for a day trip to experience some of the onsen would be ideal.

Takegawara Onsen
Open: 6.30am - 10.30pm
Cost: ¥100 for hot springs, ¥1000 for hot springs and sand bath.

Click here for Website

Beppu Beach Sand Bath
Open: March to November 8.30am - 6pm
Cost: ¥1000 for sand bath.
Click here for Website

Accommodation

Hotel: Tenkuyubo Seikaiso Guest House
Price: ¥22,050 for 2 people
Location: 3-14-3 Kitahama, Beppu-shi, Oita
Additional: Kaseiki Dinner, Breakfast & Hot Spring included, Ocean views.
Web: https://www.japanican.com/hotels/shisetsudetail.aspx?st=8410013#shisetsumenu
Booking: We booked online through Japanican: https://www.japanican.com/hotels/shisetsudetail.aspx?st=8410013#shisetsumenu