Blood Pond Hell

After a slow overnight sail from Hiroshima, as there’s not far to go, we land in Beppu, known for its natural hot springs. There are dozens in the area, including some that are so hot you cannot get into the water! In fact, Christians were boiled to death here. Gruesome. And of course, that’s the first one we want to visit…

Beppu is a relatively small city so it’s a quick trundle up the hill to Chinoike Jigoku, literally Blood Pond Hell. The bus can park close by, and getting out you’d expect a chemical or sulfur smell, but there’s surprisingly none. We’re just visiting a small hillside lake…full of red water…that happens to be 175 degrees…hot enough that it melts the clay earth in which it sits.

Water from the pond is pumped into a foot soaking tub, which we try out (not sure why we have no pics of us doing that). Damn that’s hot! You can’t sit too close to the pipe or it’s impossible to leave your feet in. There’s a great gift shop here that finally has some cool t-shirts so we spend some yen before being whisked away to more steaming pools.

The next one is much more curated, feeling a bit like a beautiful Japanese garden put together by Disney. The first place was a bit funky – in a good way – and here the landscaping is very…planned, each boulder in its place, each path giving a perfect view.

The natural phenomena around which it’s built steal the show, of course, and it’s pretty amazing. Another blood pond, and several turquoise ponds steaming at the corners, red gates providing photo ops (and probably greater meaning that escaped me). In one pond, mother nature’s firehose shoots water into the sky (capped here by a rock formation).

And…we finally find some cherry blossoms!! But no…these are plum blossoms. Darn it. Well, they’ll have to do for now. We seem to be chasing the cherry blossom bloom as we head southward. Soon we will catch up to them. We are certainly chasing the nice weather…remember it was snowing in Tokyo and here we are in shorts!

Our last stop for the day is an “onsen” where they also harvest Yunohana, crystalized hot-spring minerals. An onsen is more than just a hot spring – it is a cultural experience with specific etiquette for soaking (not bathing; entering it clean is required) to ensure a relaxing and respectful environment. You must go in naked as this is believed to break down social barriers. As with many things Japanese, being quiet is part of the practice as well. Some spaces are for families (see the smaller huts in the picture) and some are larger, more public soaking areas. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to partake in this ancient practice…

The yunohana seems to just ooze up from the ground under these huts, then dries and is scraped up and sold. Of course we buy some to take home. I’m hopeful it lives up to its promise: “…refreshed as if a day’s fatigue is magically gone.”

Tonight we pass through the Shimonoseki Strait (just northeast of Kitakyushu on the map below), which looks to be impassably narrow. While at dinner, the captain announces we will soon pass beneath a bridge with inches to spare, and cities on either side. The wine flows, the conversation bubbles, and alas, we miss it! We scramble…and still get some amazing views from the deck as we move out of the strait.