Jigoku

We’re back in Beppu for a couple of days, wanting to experience its “onsens” - its hot springs. Beppu, with more than 2,500, is Japan’s hot spring capital.

It was Golden Week when Pa and I were here two weeks ago and the crowds kept us away. A normal year brings about 60,000 during Japan’s week of national holidays. But it being the first since COVID, more than 100,000 came to town.

It’s quieter now in this little city embraced on three sides by mountains of green, and stretching along the deep blue of Beppu Bay.

There are onsens throughout Beppu and beyond, but most come to visit its Kannawa neighborhood where water gushes out at temperatures as high as 300 degrees.

Centuries ago, when Beppu was a sleepy hamlet,

the Kannawa area was described as “a cursed land of gas explosions, bubbling mud and steaming waters”. And the places where water exploded out of the ground were called “jigoku”, the Japanese word for hell.

Legend has it a Buddhist monk by the name of Ippen Shonin

arrived and calmed the hells, allowing the people to enjoy the thermal waters.

Today, Kannawa is dotted with many hot springs and several Jigoku. Pa and I visited the one called Umi-Jigoku - Sea Hell,

a hot spring 200 meters deep,

its water almost boiling.

There’s no getting in the water here,

but just to wander around is a delight.

And at the end, there’s a small pool,

where the temperature’s just right.

Pa wasn’t satisfied, though, and asked if we could visit an onsen he’d heard about. 20 minutes up into the mountains by bus, it‘s a different place, off the beaten track in comparison with Kannawa.

An older woman runs it,

quite resourceful it appeared

as she’s tapped into thermal waters, generating electricity for distribution.

Just beyond is a trail,

that passes through a deep stand

of elegant bamboo.

At the bottom of the hill

is a little paradise

where the woman’s created a place of respite

for those with the good fortunate to find it.