Hot springs in Kyushu

Most people wash. The Japanese bathe. Indeed, while most Westerners consider ducking under the shower first thing in the morning to be doing their bit for personal hygiene, in Japan, the daily ablutions are elevated to a fine - and highly ritualised - art form. Indeed, the humorist Basil Hall Chamberlain, once wryly observed: "Cleanliness is one of the few original items of Japanese civilisation." Families fill the household bath around 6pm each night and regularly take off for weekend breaks to open air onsen (mineral hot-spring spas), where bathing has developed into a fine art with its own etiquette. Here, stressed slarymen like nothing more than soaking away a night of sake and karaoke whilst taking in a panoramic forest or cherry blossom vista. Getting naked with total strangers is not, for most of us, the cultural norm, but the Japanese perceive bathing as a great social leveller - company presidents often rub naked shoulders with truck drivers in blissfull anonymity. Only the yakuza stand out with their irezumi tattoos. Indeed, the popularity of onsen is often attributed to the fact they are bereft of the rules and regulations that make life a minefield of potential social gaffes for the average Japanese citizen. Onsen are found throughout the country, due to the presence of plenty of underground thermal activity, and range from pristine mountain retreats to workaday bath-houses and kitsch, overdeveloped spa towns. However, when serious Japanese bathers fancy a dip, they all head for one place: Kyushu. Japan's third largest island is known for its easy going lifestyle, its unique local dialect and Chinese-inspired cuisine. More importantly, it's the onsen capital of Japan. Japan's booming onsen industry finds a natural home at the east coast town of Beppu, a geothermal active region characterised by the swirling steam which billows from cracks between the paving. In Beppu, over 100 million litres of near-boiling water gush from 3,000 local springs every day, while 12 million visitors annually make the pilgrimage to take the waters. The villages around Beppu contain eight separate clusters of hot springs, each with varying features, hues and "personalities". Some consist of bubbling mud pools, others towering geysers of geothermal outpourings. The locals call them jigoku after the Buddhist name for hell. Six of Beppu's nine best known jigoku are clustered around Kannawa village (a 30 minute, Y330 bus journey from Beppu station), making it the obvious start of the jigoku trail. These jigoku are all open 8am-5pm daily and charge an individual entrance fee of Y400. Alternatively, buy a day pass for Y2,000 which covers them all. The most attractive is the last of the six, Umi Jigoku, which features a deep blue sea pool bubbling at 90 degrees Centigrade set amongst gardens. Further up the man drag is the Bozu Jigoku famous for its mud pools, while the Chinoike Jigoku (Blood Pond) is another five minutes by bus further up the road and famous for its spluttering vermilion red pool coloured by iron-oxide. In such a sleepy backwater, some of the other visions of hell live up to their literal translation as they're besieged by tacky souvenir shops and grating loudspeaker announcements in homage to Japans penchant for bad taste tourism. And they're all strictly for viewing only. For a quick dip, head for one of the free public bath in the village. But beware: Japanese bathing etiquette is a complex beast. Basically, remember to wash thoroughly before getting into the bath (which is only used for soaking) and you won't offend. Heading back towards the bus station for Beppu town lies the supremely tacky - not to mention incongruous - Beppu Hinokan aka Museum of Erotica (open 9am-11pm; Y1,000). Here, giggling couples gather, post-bathing, to view an X-rated Snow White and her seven dwarfs pastiche and a sex instruction video with a soundtrack clearly heavy on irony given their reaction. After all this filth, I felt a need to cleanse myself and what better way than a visit to the Takegawara Onsen back in Beppu town where I sampled another Kyushu speciality: the suna-ya, or sand bath. As such, I was buried up to my neck in hot sand and left to stew in my own juices. "It's very good for the body. The pressure of the sand acts like a Japanese shiatsu massage," explained my attendant as he piled another shovel full of sand directly onto my crotch. Etiquette dictates you should strip, bathe in hot water, take a towel to cover your embarrassment and then lie back on the sand as they build you into a human sand castle. Simply allow the heat to soak in for the recommended ten minutes, then wash off and head next door to the public baths. Overall, the sensation was, at first, quite pleasant. Then I felt every pore of my body open up and I started to sweat profusely, unable to wipe away the beads of hot sweat stinging eyes as my hands were trapped beneath the sand. At Y710 per sand bath (open 8am-9pm) and a further Y80 for a dip in the adjoining pool (6.30am-10.30pm), the experience doesn't come cheap. Nevertheless, the Takegawara Onsen is a grand Meiji-era wooden edifice in the back streets of Ekimae-dori, a little piece of old Japanese tradition surviving alongside a row of dodgy massage parlours referred to euphemistically by the locals as "soaplands". At Takegawara, however, the only soaping going on is the punters trying to get the grains of hot black sand out of their nether regions after basting like a Xmas turkey. It may not be every Westerners idea of bath time, but it is an authentically Japanese experience. For more information about Onsen in Japan, read A Guide to Japanese Hot Springs by Anne Hotta & Ishiguro Yoko (Kodansha)

Published on 12/27/01