Sunday, May 30, 2010

Beppu, Japan

別府市

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First thing I did when I arrived in Beppu was to seek out this hidden, free, mixed-sex onsen on the side of Nabeyama. A few km up a dirt road, I was the only one there.

If you live in Japan, have transportation, and like remote onsen, then you should check out this site, Secret Japan.

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So that onsen was rad, the next... not so much. Beppu is one of the most "famous" onsen cities in Japan. People come from around Japan, and apparently Korea, to check out the hot water. The most famous spot is the 8 Levels of Hell Onsen. Holy shit, sounds bad ass!

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There are 8 different onsen areas to check out. Each one is special, some more special than special. I mean some are fucking retarded. Anyways, a 2000 yen combo ticket gets you into them all.

The first one I went to was the Ocean Hell. It was blue. Next!

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If this is your first time to Japan, which might have been the case for all the Korean tourists, then there is some shrine looking stuff to see.

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Ok, the next one was kind of rad. At Bald Dude Hell, the muddy bubbles are supposed to look like bald monk's heads. What do you think?

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Next up is Mountain Hell, which is hell for me, cause I wasted my money, and hell for the animals stuck in cages.

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Seriously, this poor hippo was the same size as the pool he was in. And the elephant can't be enjoying this life.

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Next is... Cooking Pot Hell. For reals, the pamphlet you can pick up in town makes it all seem amazing. Here, you can enjoy...

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... huffing some onsen air! This one is downhill from the zoo, so you're probably breathing in hippo pee steam. Just sayin. You can also eat an egg.

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Monster Mountain Hell is just an alligator farm.

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Random sex museum!

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Ok, the Blood Pool Hell is a nice color. I read they make old person medicine out of the water there. Whatever.

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Last up is Spout Hell. It's a geyser. I waited like 30 minutes for this crap. But there was a bonus! The fat kid in this shot totally had a tantrum!

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Who am I kidding, you'll probably go here if you ever go to Beppu. If I was with anyone, it would have been cool to see who could put their hand in the 100 degree Celsius water for the longest, or some other drunk antics.

Next: The are just outside Beppu is epic.

3 comments:

illahee said...

oh, i've been to that sex museum. it's hilarious.

and we went to the cooking pot hell a couple years ago with the kids. luckily we didn't cook the kids. or sniff steam...LOL

Thomas Hammerlund said...

No shots of the Tomato Soup Hell (the red water)?

thegypsie said...

That link will come in handy for me. I don't know what the current stand is on tattooed folk in regular onsen. But I sure wouldn't mind finding a nice little hidden one to hop into with no one to say otherwise. Cause 'I wanna dip my balls in it!'