Kyushu · Day Tour
A town where the drains steam, the ponds are scalding, and lunch is cooked in the ground.
From
¥30,000 per person
approx. US$190
Free cancellation up to 48 hours before
Instant confirmation
A private Beppu tour with a local guide. The Jigoku Meguri hot spring circuit, a bath or footbath of your own, the steam-filled lanes of the Kannawa district and food cooked in natural hot spring steam. Beppu produces more hot spring water than anywhere else in Japan.
The Jigoku are hot springs far too hot to enter — a cobalt blue pool, a pond the colour of blood from iron in the water, mud that boils in slow bubbles, a geyser on a schedule. They have been visited as sights rather than baths for centuries. Your guide explains what makes each one the colour it is, which is geology rather than folklore.
Then the opposite: a public bathhouse or a footbath, at a temperature designed for people. Beppu's baths range from municipal buildings charging a couple of hundred yen to sand baths where you are buried to the neck. Your guide will explain the etiquette, which matters, and pick one that suits you.
The oldest quarter, where steam comes up through gratings and vents in the middle of residential lanes. Old wooden buildings, narrow streets, vapour drifting between them. In the cold months the whole district smokes and it is the most photographed part of the town for good reason.
Jigoku-mushi means hell-steaming: you put vegetables, eggs, seafood or buns into a steam vent and let the ground cook them. There are communal kitchens where you do it yourself with a timer. It tastes clean and slightly mineral, and it is the most enjoyable twenty minutes of the day.
Meet your guide at the Yoshinoya in Shiomicho.
The hot springs, and what makes each one its colour.
A footbath or a public bathhouse.
The steaming lanes of the old quarter.
Lunch, steamed in the ground.
Souvenirs, coffee, or toriten to finish.
Yoshinoya in Shiomicho, Beppu, Oita. Your guide will contact you on WhatsApp beforehand.
The price covers your English-speaking guide. Admission to the hells, bathhouse fees, transportation and food are paid as you go, and by convention you also cover your guide's. Bring cash.
Not unless you want to. Footbaths and sand baths are available, and the hells themselves are viewed fully clothed.
At some bathhouses, yes. Tell us when you book and your guide will pick one that accepts them.
Yufuin is around an hour inland and can be added or substituted. Ask when you book.
Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start time. Bookings are confirmed instantly.
Kyushu · Day Tour
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