Fukuoka to Beppu, Saturday 15th April 2017

Fukuoka to Beppu , Saturday 15th April                              

Up early for club lounge breakfast and the short walk to Hakata Station to hop on the 7am train to travel 2.5 hours to Beppu. Joanne had read years ago about the hot sand bath so that's the mission of the day.

A relatively small city, it is famous for its unique and numerous hot springs, which are one of Japan's Three Great Hot Springs .In addition, there are several thermal vents that create water too hot for hot springs, and make up a unique part of Japan - its 8 "Hells". These are also a tourist attraction as none are the same and each offers a different Japanese theme. Beppu is along the coast and pressed by mountains, making for a thin & long city. 

Jumped off the train and headed for the tourist info desk and then a short walk down to the sea side to arrive at the hot sand baths. We had a 30 minute wait till our turn so Joey took the opportunity to bath her feet in the thermal waters followed by a hot can of coffee out of the vending machine

They have 2 hot sand bath areas that they alternate . Whilst they use one to bury the customers they fill the other one with hot thermal water to heat up the sand and then once the temperature is reached they then drain out the water.

   

 

 

The staff are covering up the customers with the hot sand

 

A completed group of people with sun shade umbrellas.

 Once you are called you go into the bathrooms to change into a bath robe and then make you way out to the sand pits to then get buried by the staff. It costs about $15 which includes a small towel for 15mins( any longer you can be at risk of being burnt)

Started getting a bit hot and closed in for me so i decided to break out and go and shower all the sand off me. Here's Jo after hopping out

After our showers we walked to the shopping centre and a had a soup and tempura lunch.As you walk around town there are many little thermal hand washing stops 

 

 We were very full following lunch and decided to head back to Fukuoka so we could arrive in time for the club lounge happy hour which starts at 5.30pm to 7.30 pm.

We ended up again at our Oyster bar for another great round of various different jumbo oysters

They mark each set of Oysters with a small card that indicates where they are from

Here is the jumbo Oysters and chef preparing thgem for customers