A to Beppu

Amanohashidate. Kyoto Prefecture. Sorry it's a bit grubby. It's also very small, note the shoe.

Amanohashidate. It was really bucketing down and getting good shots was hard. This came out the best because the sand provided a bit of contrast.

Amanohashidate.

Amanohashidate. This one is completely submerged. The strange light patterns are due to Bean and Medge holding brollies for me to try to control the glare.

Arashiyama. Kyoto Prefecture. Kameyamakoen.

Arima. Hyogo Prefecture. Hometown of oz punk's greatest retired drummer and now sake master, Toshi Maeda. We went for a soak at Arima Onsen (at Kin no Yu. The water looks like expensive cocoa) after going to see the statue of Tetsujin #28 (Gigantor) at Shin-nagata, also in Kobe city. If you don't see the connection then shame on you.

Arima. While in town for tubbing we took the chance to sample some of the excellent microbrew "Rokko Beer". I recommend the porter but it's all good. Oh. The cover shows the famous cable car. We took the train coz it was cheaper. Maybe next time.

Beppu. Oita Prefecture.

Beppu. Beppu almost broke me.

Beppu. For starters, Beppu has a frankly ridiculous variety of decorated manhole covers. Enough to make most drainspotters feel frankly inadequate.

Beppu. To add to the issue of the sheer number of manhole covers it has, Beppu in July was incredibly hot and sunny, adding the risks of sunburn and heatstroke to that of sheer frustration.

Beppu. The sun also created problems for photography, with many of the metal covers reflecting huge amounts of sun glare, and made shadows difficult to avoid. I'm skinny, btw, but not quite the stick insect that this seems to indicate.

Beppu. I did my best, given time constraints, but didn't end up getting all of the covers painted+unpainted. There are omissions.

Beppu. I hadn't planned on spending all my time in Beppu running around after manhole covers. It was my day off between two insane 50 Kaitenz/Dohatsuten gigs, not to mention long nights on kousoku buses and long days on seishunjuuhachi tickets.

Beppu. I was going to rest and sit in a hot spring all day.

Beppu. And wasn't counting on the insane denizens of Beppu having a different manhole cover (all in painted and unpainted versions) for every fucking month of the year!!

Beppu. I did get to an onsen though. It's called "Hebi no yu" or "Hebinyu" depending on who you ask.

Beppu. It's a so-called "hidden onsen" that's off the beaten track, up in the mountains. It's not terribly secret since it's mentioned in Lonely Planet, but I've met Oita locals in Kansai who've never heard of it.

Beppu. Hebinyu is a beautiful and wonderful place and definitely comes top of my list of favourite onsen, and I've been to some corkers.

Beppu. The road to Hebinyu is, however, well fraught. DO NOT TRUST ANYONE WHO TELLS YOU IT'S A 40 MINUTE WALK FROM THE BUS STOP!! None of the locals are stupid enough to walk up there, so they're just guessing.

Beppu. I was lucky. I'd just started up the track when a car pulled up and a concerned-looking gentleman (whose name turned out to be Sakita Hiromi, he's a train driver) asked me where I was going.

Beppu. The track pretty much only goes to one place so I imagine he'd guessed, and when I confirmed his fears he opined that it was too far to walk and offered to give me a lift there.

Beppu. It was at least 15 minutes drive! Given that it was about 35 degrees and I only had a litre of water I consider myself very lucky that Hiromi was kind enough to stop for me.

Beppu. When we got up there Hiromi organised a lift back for me with a dignified older gentleman (whose name I unfortunately can't remember) who turned out to have built the tubs at Hebinyu with local rock and cement in his younger days.

Beppu. Apparently it took him and two friends a day a week for three years to get the whole thing set up. The tubs are filled with water straight from a natural hot spring. One of the tubs uses some water from the adjacent stream to cool it until it's tepid. The other four are hot.

Beppu. Hebinyu is mixed. The only people there when I arrived and, in fact the whole time I was there, were dudes. Apart from me. Which left me not entirely sure of etiquette. First time at an outdoor hot spring. First time at a mixed one.

Beppu. So, I followed my usual policy of "monkey see, monkey do" and stripped off, washed off, and got into the nearest tub. And realised that I could hear the word "mezurashii" being muttered. "Unusual." "Novel." "Now there's something you don't see every day."

Beppu. Turns out foreigers usually wear bathing suits and that Japanese women wear a towel in the tub. Who knew?

Beppu. Hiromi had even asked me if I had a towel and I thought "Well, duh, I have to have something to dry myself off with." and gave it no further thought.

Beppu. With any luck I haven't done any great damage to international relations. In the end, nobody seemed to mind however odd they may have thought it.

Beppu.

Beppu.

Beppu.

Beppu.