黒川温泉 Kurokawa onsen

After a hearty breakfast (which I forgot to take any photos of cos I was too busy gorging on the fabulous sweet miso, natto and barley mix cooked on a piece of leaf and raw egg with rice, amongst other things), we bade the ryokan staff farewell.

Then, we headed to our ryokan's sister inn 山みずき Yama-mizuki, which is renowned for its riverside baths. The open-air baths were next to the river and was very open but it felt safe enough cos it was quite far away from the walking paths. On the ladies side, there were 2 baths connected by a 200m-long path partially shielded by plants. (Photos taken from internet. Couldn't take any pictures cos the baths were crowded.)

いちのいで会館 Ichinoide Kaikan

For lunch, we went to Ichinoide Kaikan, a bento shop with its own outdoor bath! The owner is an onsen lover and built large outdoor baths near his shop. Order a bento and you can dip in the bath for free (but the water here is quite hot!). The baths are very big and located halfway up a hill so you get a good view of Beppu city.

The men's bath

The ladies' bath is big enough to swim in...I was swimming 20m-long laps in it!

Good view of Beppu city from the ladies' bath

Enjoying our lunch after our bath. Our lunch was dango jiru set. Dango jiru is a Beppu signature dish, miso soup with vegetables and dumplings.

花見 Hanami lunch. Nice view of sakura from the window of the eating hall.

別府 Beppu

Beppu is the hot springs capital of Japan. There are many hot springs and different varieties as well - usual hot spring bath, sand bath, mud bath, etc.

The main highlight in Beppu, though, are the 地獄 Jigoku (Hell Baths). These baths are only for viewing and not for bathing in, unless you want to be cooked alive. The temperatures of these are around 100 deg.

白池地獄 Shiraike (White Pond) Jigoku

かまど地獄 Kamado (Oven) Jigoku
Giant thermometer to show how hot the water is
Throat and skin bath. Daddy is somewhere in the steam.
Interesting phenomenon. If you hold a lit cigarette near this hole and blow at it, lots of steam will be produced. Uncle giving it a try.
And it works!

A Korean tour guide demonstrating the same phenomenon at the bubbling mud pool.

And the same thing happens! The curious thing is that smoke is only produced at the particular mud bubble he blew at, and not the others.