Massive fail!

Day 7

Early rise to experience the other onsen, the right-hand side one. Same style and number of baths but the outdoor area has a small garden and you have to walk to get to the second hot bath. The garden makes the outdoor space feel more spacious and relaxing. There is no waterfall or turtle though but overall it's better.

Breakfast was a repetition of dinner... and I was still full! We practiced some observation of the locals to find out how some of the delicatessen were eaten and it paid of. 

A couple seating not far from us laughed as the waitress tried to explain breakfast to us in a kind of english and the man kept watching us until he left the breakfast room. Weirdo!

Again, we left full. When I say we I mean myself and Manuel. Jorge seems to have a never ending appetite!

Reluctantly we left Kurokawa behind and headed to Beppu in the east coast. 

Before geting there we stopped to see the Usuki Budhas, 1000 years old Budha images carved in stone in a series of niches in a ravine. Although they have historic value and some are very well preserved for their age, I personally would not do a detour again to see them.

Beppu is a big onsen town, highly touristic. It has many districts and all have their particular baths. It is also popular for it's Jigoku, aka fumaroles, but the japanese love to translate it to Hells. I guess it gives a more dramatic feel!

So we started by visiting some of them. You can buy a general admission ticket for the 8 hells but we decided to visit the 3 more appealing: Umi (cobalt blue colour), Onishibozu (mud) and Chinoike (red colour).

Umi Jigoku is the largest and eggs are boiled in it (see photo above with the cane). I bought a package of what I thought were 4 quails eggs boiled in it's waters only to find out that they were actually cakes in the shape of eggs. Massive fail!

Check-in at the hotel was easy and quick. We have a japanese-style room with ocean view and a foot bath on the balcony.

First off to the sand baths at the seaside. I was looking forward to be buried to the neck by old ladies. Sadly, we got there 2h before closing time and they already had enough clients until the end of the day. This wasn't starting well...

Mud baths next at Hoyo Land Onsen. The guidebook mentioned outdoor mixed baths so we were prepared with our swimming  suits. 

Hoyo Land Onsen is an old style, unrefined, straight to the point onsen. Expect no english at reception, plastic slipers, no toiletries for your shower, cold water showers and japanese signs only. It is a maze of wooden corridors leading to outside doors through which you can cross the river and watch the neighbours garden (am I on the right path?). 

The signs for the basic rules were written in english and clearly stated NAKED. So I went looking for the outdoor mixed mud bath with just a small towel covering in front. I found it but as the signs were in japanese I didn't know I was on the men's entrance. Jorge and Manuel greeted me with laughter. 'I think I'm lost!', I said. They told me to get out of there as I was clearly on the wrong corridor. Was I?!? 

I walked back and found a group of girls scrubbing themselves with mud in the indoor mud baths and tried to ask for help (their english wasn't good). They weren't sure either but one of them took me to the same door with a huge amount of giggling from her friends. Damn!, I thought, how am I going to get there?

I braved myself and tried the men's door again. There was a male staff member on the other side so I put on my most angelical 'I am lost' face and pointed to the mud baths. He kindly showed me that what I thought was a wall at the end of the corridor was actually the women's entrance. Massive fail number 2!

The entrance was a slippery rock corridor leading directly to the bath. It wasn't the mud bath I was expecting. The water has a grayish colour, milky type of fluid and opaque. It has mud particles in suspension and very little deposited in the bottom. I wasn't sinking in a puddle of mud as I expected!

Submerged in the water up to the shoulders I walked out. The separation between genders is pretty much a bamboo cane traversing in the middle of the bath at eye level. As soon as I walked in some of the men left. As I told the boys about my adventures and we laughed some of the others followed the same way. I tried to keep further from the boundary to keep some of the men's privacy but they kept leaving. I assume it is not very common for women to use the mixed bath. Funny enough, to walk out the men had to leave the bath and walk almost half of it's circumference to reach their door, completely exposed. Some used the small towel to cover themselves, some did not!

The bath didn't took long as the boys were getting bored. So we left. I had a cold shower and waited for them at the rest room, seating in what looked like small benches. I wasn't waiting for long when a young couple told me that the bench I was seating on was actually a table and I should be seating in the tatami floor. Massive fail again!

The wait took almost half an hour. What the hell were the boys doing? When they finally arrived they told me that on the way to the shower they found a proper mud bath, with mud half way up the shin. They tried it but as Manuel was taking the full benefit of the mud by scrubbing it on himself, Jorge felt sick and left. Hard to believe when he returns home covered in mud almost every Sunday!

So there we are. I lost the true mud bath! This day was an accumulation of repeated fails. I just hopped there was no more to come.

For pictures of the Hoyo Land Onsen: http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g298219-d3595627-Reviews-Beppu_Onsen_Hoyo_Land_Konya_Jigoku-Beppu_Oita_Prefecture_Kyushu_Okinawa.html.

We were out of time for more baths before dinner so we headed off to the hotel. We had kaiseki dinner again but whilst the other was superb this one was just very good. Our tummies were full and content again.

Dinner was on a private room not in our bedroom and we were given western style table and chairs to seat on. Later we realised they had japanese style private rooms but we were not given the option. Westerners that we are, we ought to want western style, right? No, wrong!

After dinner I managed to convince Jorge to come with me and try the Takegawara Onsen sand baths. The onsen was near our hotel and it can't be missed as it is the oldest bulding around.

We were the last clients of the day, we managed to get there 15min before closure. Dressed in yukatas we were buried to the neck in vulcanic warm sand by two ladies that looked like salt workers. '10min' they said. The bath was done inside a big room with high ceiling and in a mixed gender area. Outside there were some old pictures that showed the room had once been the double of the size. Sand baths are popular! 

Jorge thought it was quite hot but I felt it was warm but not enough to sweat. It could be longer as well. 

It is probably a very relaxing experience but I was too worried about the sand in contact with my neck (I have a sensitive neck) and desperately trying not to freak out. It came to my mind all those ancient pictures of sand baths with people wearing a towel around their neck. That's why!

They were in such a hurry to close that they didn't wait for us to finish our water shower (no toiletries there either) before starting to clean the shower area, so no privacy for Jorge.

For pictures of Takegawara Onsen: http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g298219-d555387-Reviews-Takegawara_Spa-Beppu_Oita_Prefecture_Kyushu_Okinawa.html.

The end of the day had to be at the hotel's onsen as we definetely needed a proper wash after all that mud and sand. Just to mention that japanese-style rooms have toilet and sink but not a shower, so you always have to go to the public baths/onsen for a bath/shower. 

The hotel's onsen is on the upper floor and it consists of a square wooden bath by the window with views of the sea. Showers on the side as usual. Instead of stone floor it has a tatami floor which I thorougly disliked because it is impossible to keep clean and it will rot quickly. Not a brilliant idea!