Happy birthday to me!
Trip Start
May 06, 2007
1
135
166
Trip End
Jul 24, 2008
Beppu,
Japan
Friday, April 4, 2008
Beppu is a small city in the south of Japan that has become a bit of a spa town, renowned for its numerous onsens, aka hot springs. I was incredibly unimpressed with the hells, essentially onsens that you look at but can't touch. What fun are hot springs if you can't soak in them? My first actual onsen experience was at my hostel. The dorm rooms at the hostel didn't have any showers, forcing you to use the hostel's free onsen. There are separate onsens for men and women, but they all follow the same basic etiquette. First, you get naked - no bathing suits allowed. Then you shower and clean yourself. It is incredibly rude to enter an onsen without washing your body first (and your hair too if you intend to dunk your head in the onsen). Then you soak in the onsen for as long as you can stand it. I typically can't make it more than 10-12 minutes because it's so friggin hot. Afterward, you towel off in the onsen room and proceed into the changing room to put your clothes back on.
Saturday afternoon Katherine and Mike (a British couple from my hostel) and I decided that we wanted to try out a sand bath instead of just taking a dip in a regular onsen. It was quite the experience. First they gave us light, cotton robes to wear. We were then told to lie down in a hollowed area of a large sandbox. This wasn't like normal beach sand either - it was more pebbly and was heated by onsen water. One of the attendants then shoveled sand over my entire body to bury me. She made extra sure to pack it in around my neck so that I was completely covered up to my chin. Unfortunately I didn't think to bring my camera out there with me, so no sandbox picture. The sand felt really heavy - much heavier than being buried at the beach. For the first few minutes it felt really nice, almost like I had an electric blanket wrapped around me. Then I started sweating. And the beads of sweat dripping down my face started itching. Not being able to scratch my face made it itch even more. Plus my body started to feel stiff from lying there for so long. When the attendant finally told us it was time to stand up, I was very much ready for the whole thing to be over. Afterward we showered in a rather futile attempt to rid our bodies of sand and then went for a dip in the small onsen just for people post-sand-bath.
On Sunday, my birthday, Katherine, Mike, and I decided to had up one of the nearby mountains and hike to one of the hidden outdoor onsens. No one prepared us for the intense sulfur smell we would be subjected to. It started out relatively minor where the bus dropped us off near the base of our hike. As we started up the mountain, the smell basically disappeared. Until we came within a 5 minute walk of the onsens when sulfur slowly started to creep into our noses until it completely covered every other potential odor we could be smelling. But we weren't going to let a little sulfur keep us out of the onsen that we had spent a half-hour hiking to.
After waiting about 10 minutes for a group of Japanese guys to get out of the onsen and get dressed, it was finally our turn. We put on our bathing suits (outdoor, coed onsen don't follow the same stringent rules as the indoor ones) and hopped in. The water stank of sulfur and the bottom was rather muddy and gross. After we had been soaking for about 3 minutes, Katherine pulled up a handful of mud that included a dark, coarse, long pubic hair. Yuck! We only lasted a couple of minutes after that before we were sufficiently disgusted and needed to get out. I'm definitely a much bigger fan of indoor onsen that are cleaned regularly.
On our way back into town we decided to stop at the famous pudding shop where they cook everything with onsen steam. Bad idea. It also stank of sulfur and the food was pretty gross. Katherine and I both swore we could taste sulfur in the food, though Mike thought we were crazy and was happy to finish everything we couldn't eat.
Upon return to the hostel, all three of us raced into the shower/onsen to attempt to rid our bodies of sulfur. It worked relatively well, but my clothes had to be resigned to their own special dirty laundry bag so as not to contaminate my other dirty clothes with their sulfuric stink.
That night the three of us were joined for dinner by an Australian couple, a Kiwi couple, and an Argentinian guy. In our attempt to find a restaurant recommended by the girl working at the hostel, we instead ended up at a place recommended by a random guy who we asked for directions. But the food was quite good and rather cheap so none of us complained. Plus, this random guy was able to explain to them in Japanese exactly what I needed for a vegetarian meal and they made something special for me. Fantastic. Katherine and Mike also surprised me with a little cake and candles from a convenience store. They all sang happy birthday to me and the whole restaurant clapped. It was a bit embarrassing, but a lot of fun. Plus I can now say that I've eaten chocolate cake with chopsticks. A perfect way to end a wonderful birthday.
Monday morning I arose early to catch the train to Aso to see the volcano. When I heard pounding rain I considered just staying in bed and skipping the day trip since there was a greater chance of the volcano being closed, but I decided to go ahead with it. Bad choice. When there is dangerous gas coming from this active volcano, they close it off to tourists. Not necessarily a bad thing, but they don't make the decision about whether or not to close it until 9am. In order to get to the volcano and back in a day using the JR pass, you need to take the 7:52am train, meaning you'll be halfway through the ride when they decide whether or not it will be open for the day. That was what happened to me. I ended up waiting around Aso for a couple of hours and then caught the next train back to Beppu. Far less exciting than my original plan for the day. So no walking around on top of an active volcano for me. Something to put on my list for the future.
