Japan 2020 (Part 6)
Let's face it. Fukuoka has something to offer, but not as much as the rest of more popular destinations like Tokyo or Osaka. Which is why the next day we had to take a long train ride OUT of Fukuoka and to Oita prefecture, the land of hot springs.
From the train station we looked (as advised by the information) for the tourist center. We made it there around lunch time already, not enough to visit all 7 Hells. There's 2 more that we missed which were out of the way of the first 5 which are within walking distance. So even still we got the pass which will allow us to enter all of them just by showing it instead of paying each entrance.
We were dropped off by the bus on a highway it seems and we have no idea where to go first. I think we spent some time deciding where we're going until we just tried going to anything that looks like an entrance. Be aware that there are a lot of resorts nearby and not all of them is susceptible to the voucher. They will not let you in.
The first one we got to was the prettiest, Umi Jigoku. The pool it has have a very blue color, and the gardens surrounding it are carefully manicured. The smells are nothing to be desired especially when it's steam hits you right in the face. There are some smaller hot springs within the vicinity which I didn't get the names of. There is even a red one.
We've also eaten steam cooked pudding and eggs!
It's neighboring hell is Oniishibozu Jigoku. It barely smells of anything compared to the first one, just don't go near the steam obviously. It has some plants around as well and also plentiful of sitting in case you just want to be mesmerized looking at the mud slowly churning. There are not a lot of people here.
Next stop is a cute visit, they even have demon scupltures abound, Kamado Jigoku. There's even a small chemical experiment which I really hoped I have taken a video of.
Oniyama Jigoku is the exception of the bunch wherein the actual star are the inhabitants of the hot springs which are crocodiles! I don't know if they're allowed on the bigger pool but I doubt they were because it's the only one that don't have any protective barriers on it. I wonder how hot the pool is.
There's a large stuffed croc inside and some facts about them
Shiraike Jigoku caps our trip, it's a more intimate version of Umi, with gardens and a huge roundabout where in the center is the star, a milky pool of hot steaming water. There's supposed to be more to this as far as I know, there are remnants of aquariums but I think they're under repair for now.
From here we walked towards the bus center where it's supposed to take us to the train station. We said to the guy there where we wanted to go and he let us on to the bus that the information center didn't note in our guide. What I understand is it did take us to the train to get us back to Fukuoka, but it took a really long while. We should have just said which bus we should have taken.
Entrance 2000 JPY for the booklet for the hells ; 100 JPY for 1 egg, 250 JPY for the pudding
BONUS!
I don't know why we haven't notice this store before: Reganet Cute. It's a small grocery where we got our dinner to eat back at WEBase (they have a communal area for eating complete with kitchen amenities). It's a nice break from konbinis. And they're also marked down at night so that's a nice budget tip.
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