Fear and loathing in Beppu?

We read somewhere that this city has been compared to Las Vegas… I’m not sure how or why because the only similarity was the sex museum we visited today that was filled with a porn theater, life size sex dolls as well as plenty of really old pictures. If nothing else it was good for a laugh but it was seven bucks I’ll never get back . To Japan, Beppu is know for their onsens (hot springs) or “hells” as they call them here. This morning we caught the bus over to the main onsen area in Beppu to check out some of the more recommended ones (there are 9), of which I would only really recommend three for anyone visiting to this area because they’re 400 yen a pop and theres not much inside. The first is Umi jigoku or “sea hell”, which is a pond of hot blue water with some steam and the second was the oniishibozu jigoku or “mud pool hell”. We also visited the Shiraike jigoku “white pond hell” and the chinoike jigoku or “blood pond hell” because of the red color caused by  red clay in the area. In my opinion the former is the only one worth seeing and the later is about a twenty five minute walk away from the others and not really worth it.

After that little trip we headed back down to the sea wall so Carolyn could play with a family of cats that have made their home down there. I think tonight we are going to go check out one of the local onsen and go for a dip, the indoor ones are the only ones that are gender segregated. If your a man you have to be nude wherever you go (In the onsen!), but in some cases women are allowed to wear towels. We’ll let you know how the streaking went for us later,

Mike