Day 7 Pictures
Today we went to hell. Well what the locals call the gurgling pools in the area. As noted earlier the area around Beppu is famed for its hot springs and other geothermal activity. There is one particular area where tourists can visit some hot ponds and gurgling mud pools. It was off to this are that we headed first thing this morning.
The first hell we went to was known as the Sea Hell and had a nice bath for bathing your tired feet and other baths that you wouldn’t want to bathe your feet in or they would cooked rather than bathed.
The second hell we visited, which was right next door but of course you needed to pay separate admission to, was Aquamarine Hell.
In this hell there were some really lovely gardens amongst the hot pools and bubbling waters. There was also a greenhouse with a lot of orchids, lily plants and some dragon flies doing stuff. At this hell in the summer the lily pads grow so large that they can support a small child. You will see from the photos that in one of the hot pools a basket with eggs in it had been lowered in the pool to boil the eggs.
After we were finished with hell we thought it best we did something that deserved us being sent there in the first place.
Our guide had suggested that for a bit of fun we visit the sex museum that was a short walk from the hells. Ok well the less said about that the better, except that it was a bit of a giggle and I will never be able to watch Snow White again!
The afternoon was free and I had intended to go to the local pool complex called Aquabeat. Unfortunately the travel and lack of sleep due to sleeping in different beds every night got the better of me and an afternoon of snoozing was had.
That evening several of us went down to Beppu and dropped into a Pachinko parlour. This is the famed pinball type arcades where hundreds of people play something akin to vertical pinball. The parlour was noisy with loud music and metallic ball clanking and filled with smoke and for me was not a very pleasant environment. We played a 100 yen game only to discover that the knobs you twist appear to have no bearing on the outcome of the game. But I am sure we mere amateurs had no clue and it actually just seemed that nothing we did affected the way the balls moved.
After this side trip we moved on to an onsen in the middle of the town where a few of our group decided to take a hot sand bath. At this establishment our brave few lay down on a floor whilst little Japanese ladies piled hot sand over them. I opted out of such enjoying activities and went to our next point of call a little earlier.
This stop was the local Rock and Roll club. It was an all inclusive type affair with a buffet meal and entertainment. Our group was the only non Japanese table and I think we became the novelty act for the night.
The band was really quite good and played a lot of Rock and Roll songs from the 50’s and 60’s. Many of the tunes they sung in English but also some in Japanese, the tunes of which some I did know and other I did not.
It was a good fun night out an interesting insight into the local entertainment. Of course being a buffet the food was not that spectacular but we were well fed, well watered and well entertained.
After several sets of listening to this group we decided to head back to the hotel for yet another early start and a day of travelling.
Day 7 Pictures