Beppu Japan Oita

Japan

Columns of vapour rise between the roofs, as if the earth breathes beneath the houses. Beppu, on the east coast of Kyushu in Oita Prefecture, lives literally above a cauldron: nowhere else in Japan are there so many hot springs nor such a flow of thermal water. The ship docks about three kilometres from the centre, and shuttles cover the distance in about ten minutes. From the first streets, the smell of sulphur and white plumes announce the day's character.

The "Hells": Curiosities Born From Underground

Beppu's fame rests on its jigoku, these volcanic basins too hot for bathing that you contemplate as natural phenomena. Tradition counts seven, five of which are grouped in the Kannawa quarter, walking distance from one another; a bus reaches them from the terminal area in fifteen to twenty minutes. The last two hide in the more distant Shibaseki sector.

• Umi Jigoku, the "sea hell," spreads water of cobalt blue that reaches nearly 98 degrees Celsius, veiled in vapour.
• Chinoike Jigoku, the "hell of the blood pond," owes its dark red hue to iron oxide; it is held to be the country's oldest natural thermal basin.

From one basin to the next, you walk between stone walls and tended gardens, an egg boiled in the fumes in hand, wondering how earth so tormented could produce a setting so peaceful. Each site possesses its character, its colour, its legend; taking time to see three or four already gives a fair sense of the phenomenon.

Kannawa: The Quarter That Steams

Around the basins, Kannawa has built an entire culture of hot water. Public kitchens allow vegetables, seafood and buns to be cooked directly in the breath of the springs, according to the jigoku-mushi technique inherited from centuries of thermal life. You order your basket, watch the timer, then eat on benches, between two white clouds, amid visitors in yukata moving from one bath to the next. In sloped lanes, steaming grilles dot the pavements, and every gutter seems to draw its own breath.

Takegawara: The Sand Bath a Century Old

Near the waterfront, the Takegawara establishment, founded in 1879 behind a high façade of dark wood, offers the most singular experience of the port-call: the sand bath. Buried to the neck in sand heated by the springs, you let the warmth penetrate for about ten minutes, under the eye of attendants who wield the shovel with precision. You emerge light of body and mind washed, before passing to the establishment's interior baths, whose great wood-floored hall evokes the public baths of old. The place welcomes the neighbourhood's people as much as passing travellers, without distinction or ceremony.

The Centre: Between Arcades and Small Tables

Beppu's heart is easily toured on foot. Covered shopping galleries, noodle shops, woven bamboo boutiques: the city embraces its status as a popular hot spring resort, without fuss, turned toward the wellbeing of its residents as much as of travellers. It is everyday Japan, welcoming, where you are greeted with a nod in the steam of a bubbling broth.

Before Taking to Sea Again

At the moment of returning to the dock, one last look toward the hills suffices: the plumes continue to rise, unperturbed, as they did long before the ships arrived and as they will long after. Beppu does not tell itself; it is felt, through skin and vapour. Those who merely passed through keep the strange certainty of having touched the earth's pulse.