It was about mid-day when we entered Kyushu where we began our clockwise round-the-island trip. We soon reached the Oita Prefecture, one of the largest in Kyushu. On the way we saw forests similar to those in the morning journey. It was quite a long journey before we finally arrived at Beppu Bay where a small city caught our attention by steam emerging from all over the place. At first we thought those were smoke from chimneys. The coach stopped at the service station in Beppu Bay. Raymond & I had a nice time enjoying delicious ice-lollies from a vending machine. As Raymond was snapping videos with my mini Digital-Video camcorder we almost bumped into a big white cat with light tan patches. I am such a staunch cat lover I could hardly resist snapping a few shots before leaving. At least it was a Japanese cat!

The cat in Beppu Bay:

After the break our next stop was Beppu the city. We discovered that the "smoke" we had thought it was was actually steam from the hundreds, if not thousands, of spas and geysers in the town. That was how Beppu earned its reputation of the City of the Spas. These spas are famous for their volcanic mineral contents having medicinal powers. Those mineral contents are often extracted by evaporating the spa/geyser water and sold in powder form for use in baths.

We made a partial jigoku meguri (meaning "tour of the hells"). It's not "hell" in that usual sense. These jigokus ("hells") are in fact volcanic fissures that spew out hot water with steam. There are nine such jigokus in Beppu. According to the geological differences and minerals each contains, most of them have their own unique colours, characteristic properties and therefore characteristic names. Tatsumaki Jigoku, in particular, is a geyser which bursts about every 25 minutes for a duration of some 10 minutes. It bursts in a vertical column of very hot water. As steam emerges from the top of the column the view closely resembles that of a tornado, and hence its name. All the jigokus are too hot for bathing. In fact the water is hot enough to boil eggs. They say eggs become tastier after being boiled in the jigokus, perhaps due to the sulphur content.

Click on the pictures below for three unofficial web-pages on the 9 jigokus:

I really wished we could see the remaining six jigokus but regrettably they were not included in the tour package. I'd rather pay more to see all of them! We headed for Hotel Fugetu (Hammond) quite early in order to squeeze out more time to experience the spa baths in the hotel.

After having unloaded our luggage from the coach and checked-in, we had a bath in a spa located in the roof of the hotel. This small spa - for male only, the female one was over the other end - was beautifully crafted in rock but closes at 11:00pm, which was why we topped it in our agenda. The water was quite hot at more than 50 degrees Celsius having a slight hint of the odour of sulphur. We had to dip our naked bodies very slowly into the water in order to get adapted to the temperature before we could possibly do a good immersion. Three minutes of immersion is quite an ample session. There are showers for us to cool down &/or clean up. After 2 to 3 sessions I could feel the soothing effect building from within my body. That sure was impressive. It is said that in Kyushu boys are more handsome and girls are more beautiful because they often bathe in spas.

We had syabu-syabu (hot-pot) for dinner. Some of us, including Raymond and I, had ordered in advance through our tour guide deluxe sashimi sets at 19,000 Yen per set. Each set was enough for 4 persons. We shared our set with a couple. It was really something of its class but I was a bit disappointed to know that they did not have uni - the roe of sea urchins - which I had been wanting badly for ages.

After dinner Raymond and I decided to venture on the long road beside the Hotel. We first stopped by a soft-drink shop and ordered a frozen melon drink. Further along the road we got into a convenience store which was some 10 minute's walk from the hotel. A strange but pleasant odour caught our attention. We tried to trace the source of the smell only to discover a big rectangular stainless steel container with interior partitions where spiced meatballs are simmered. Didn't catch our appetite, however, since we had already had an ample portion earlier in the Hotel. We did find some sort of tasty dairy products - yoghurt and sweetened milk, cheese & egg pudding.

When we returned to the hotel it was quite late in the night. We had a bath in another male spa located in the ground floor. That was a much larger spa which was open round the clock so we took leisure. Raymond and I massaged each other in turns. I had a wonderful sleep that night after the bath and the massage.

Leaving this lovely resort early in the morning, our next destination was Harmonyland which is located in Hiji, a small town to the northeast of Beppu and almost adjacent to each other. It is an amusement park which is also known as Hello Kitty Land because it features Hello Kitty as the theme cartoon character.

The sun was already scorching when we arrived at the park. I had to open the umbrella lest I might get sunstroke. We took a ride in a very slow spinning Ferris wheel which I suppose was designed for sight-seeing. Wow it was so hot in the compartment I couldn't stop cursing the heat! While we were close to the maximum height we saw cattle grazing on beautiful pasture just beyond the amusement park. Milk cows!

We then took a fancy train which transported us to another site in the park where we had a boat trip into a tunnel of mechanically animated cartoon wonderland. We were driven back to our childhood fantasies. That perhaps was the most enjoyable part of the visit, and wow, you know what, that cartoon tunnel was fully air-conditioned!

We came to the entrance of a somewhat "miniature" roller-coaster. Raymond couldn't resist a ride so off we went. It was quite a bit of fun! I could hardly stand the heat. Fortunately there were shops where we could take shelter from the sun. Raymond bought some souvenirs while I enjoyed the air-conditioning, albeit pathetically feeble.

At around 11am we left the park for a long journey crossing the Oita-Miyazaki Prefectural Boundary into the Miyazaki Prefecture.