Saturday, November 27, 2010

Day 3 & 4: Hoyoland Onsen (Hot Spring)

We took the shinkansen from Kyoto down to Beppu which is on the large southern island of Kyushu. I thought the look of this shinkansen on the inside was unique, but the ride was bumpier than any other bullet train rides we had.

Beppu is known for its onsen baths and hells and that was abundantly apparent when we took the bus to Hoyoland as we could see steam rising from various hot spring sources throughout the town. We chose Hoyoland as one of our onsen stops because it is known for its mud baths and mixed gender outdoor bath where men and women can bath together. When we pulled up, I was a little bit discouraged by the outward appearance of the place. It looked like a modern (not rustic) rundown building, but the large bridge in the background made for a nice picture.
Once inside we saw a lot of day bathers--people that pay the admission price to bathe during certain hours. This was an encouraging sign. We had booked a room by e-mailing them months ago as they didn't appear to have any partner booking sites in English. Although the woman greeting us said we should have called them first from the train station, she gave us a room at a lower rate than what we had agreed to through e-mail and explained the layout of the place and the baths.

The hallway to our room on the second floor did not look very inviting but our room was a bit of a surprise. The tatami mats were clean and the room did not smell like smoke.  All of the ryokans we booked  never gave us a choice to pick a non-smoking room! The room was spacious compared to our Kyoto accommodations with a seating area by the windows and a sink at the entrance. We had booked a room without a private bathroom but having the sink was a nice surprise.  The shared restroom down the hall was pretty old and somewhat dirty.

We changed into our yukatas (cotton PJs basically), grabbed the towels provided in the room, and found our way to the baths which were down a pretty covered path set apart from the ryokan. We entered into a large lounge room with a tatami floor. Day bathers that had just enjoyed a bath were resting there. The man at the entrance to the baths handed me a shower cap.  Understandably , they discourage getting your hair covered in mud.
 
The hubby and I went into our separate changing rooms. Like the public bath house, the first area is a changing room this time with cubby holes for keeping personal belongings. I put my yukata in there and took just the towel in with me to the washing stations. Directly by the washing stations was a large indoor bath with almost milky white water where several women were bathing.  In the adjoining room was another bath built into the ground with separated stations.  The goal was to find the mixed outdoor bath.  I attempted to follow the signs which led me down a covered towel-flanked path but when I got to the end it didn't seem like I could go any further.  Peaking out on the left side I saw a bunch of men bathing in the outdoor bath!  The lady at reception clearly said there was a way for women to enter the bath without being seen.  I backtracked and asked some of the ladies bathing about the konyoku (mixed) bath and they continued to point me down this path.  I finally realized I had to push on the door at the end!  It led out into a covered area where you can get into the water and then exit out to the mixed bath fully under the milky water.  There were even baskets to hold your towel in this little alcove.  What a relief.

The wooden structure on the left side is where women enter privately.

Taken early in the morning when no other bathers were present.
Out in the mixed bath there were a lot of men and only one or two women at first, and the hubby was waiting there.  The bath is actually separated by a wooden beam to keep men and women on their own sides.  Very few of the men were shy when entering or exiting the bath.  Some didn't even bother to cover themselves when walking to get back to their locker room!  The bottom of the bath was very muddy in some parts--it squished between my toes as I tried to find a good place to sit.  I watched some of the other women pick this mud up from the bottom and spread it all over their arms, neck, and face--making a mud mask.  They also largely ignored the men by turning and facing the other direction.

The one drawback to this kind of bath is that when the water gets too hot to bear as a woman you can't just stand up for a few minutes.  I soon retreated to the entrance alcove to rest a while and then go in to try some of the other baths before rinsing off and returning to the room.

Dinner was another nice surprise.  We ate downstairs in the dining room where they had our tables labeled by room number.  Our host and hostess showed us what we were having and offered the hubby a fork if he preferred that to chopsticks.  He declined which I think pleased them.  Our first Japanese-style meal consisted of several dishes including squid and shrimp sashimi, clear soup, fried fish and vegetables, cabbage salad, picked vegetables, shrimp and more vegetables, seaweed salad, rice, and of course, green tea (ocha).  It was delicious and filling!

After dinner we felt tired so we elected to sleep early and bathe again at first light.  Our hidden motive was to try to get the baths to ourselves so that we could take pictures and we were successful!  Although there were a few other bathers with us that morning because it was cloudy and rainy, nobody came to the mixed outside bath.

Breakfast consisted of miso soup, raw egg, rice, seaweed crackers, and some vegetables.  The hostess asked us if we were OK with eating the raw egg.  We said yes although neither of us had ever done it!  The hubby slyly watched other breakfast-goers so that we could figure out what to do.  We mixed a little bit of soy sauce into it before adding it to our rice.  It's really not bad at all!  






We departed after breakfast and took the bus to see the famous Tatsumaki Jigoku geyser in the area.  It rivals the Old Faithful geyser of Yellowstone Park and spouts every 25-30 minutes for about five minutes.  Although they had a seating area for viewing, people crowded around the fence just in front of the geyser and then everyone scrambled to get a picture during its five minute duration.   















We got our picture as well!


                                                                                          
After departing Beppu we headed west toward Fukuoka for the sumo tournament.  More about that in an upcoming post.

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