Beppu and Miyajima - March 20th

Beppu is famous for its numerous hot springs.



So the first thing we did was to go to a co-ed mud bath. Everyone's naked, but you can't see anything as long as your body is submerged in the water. No photos were allowed for obvious reasons, but let me share some classy lines a 'friendly' fellow bather said to me:

"If you didn't have a boyfriend (referring to Phil or Steven), I would help you put mud on your back."

(When walking over to another pool, he slows down to walk behind me because I am covering my front with a handtowel): "Your backside is all goose-bumpley."

"Oh, there's a mosquito floating near your boobs. I do understand how it feels though."

This is all in Japanese, so when I translated everything to the boys later on, they looked appalled.


Anyway, here's the bus stop you'd get off to go to this place, 別府温泉保養ランド (Beppu Onsen Hoyo Land). I give it 2 and a half stars. The murky water makes it difficult to avoid running into things or notice steps going up/down. Also, the floor can sometimes get too hot because it's all natural. I got some mild burns actually.




After spending an hour locating a meat bun store that one of the books recommended, we were replenished enough to continue our exploration of Beppu.

One of the main attractions of the area is called The Eight Hells -- pools of boiling water that have some kind of unique characteristic like having a vivid color. We managed to hit 3 of the hells.


Hell #1: 海地獄 (Ocean Hell)
This hell has a bright blue color.



Ocean Hell also featured Amazonian lotuses that only grow in hot spring waters in Japan.




Hell #2: 血の池地獄 (Blood-Pool Hell)
This hell has a bright red color.
Here are Phil and me looking devilish in front of the pool.




Hell #3: 龍巻地獄 (Tornado Hell)
This hell spirals up like a tornado. It's not active all the time, so sometimes you have to wait a bit. I think it shoots up for 6 minutes every 40 minutes, or something like that.




After enjoying the hot springs and hells, it was time to move onto Miyajima, a sacred island off of Hiroshima.

Here's the bento box (lunch box) we had on the bullet train:




When we got to Miyajima, we threw our things in our hotel room and hurried to 厳島神社 (Itsukushima Shrine) before the light-up ended at 11 p.m.




The madness that is traveling with Phil+Steven continues...