December 29th 2018:

Kumahachi Aburayama

Breakfast at Little Mermaid again. Just outside at the front of the station, there is a statue of a man called Kumahachi Aburayama. After travelling the world, he returned to Beppu to run a hotel. Using PR techniques he had learned in the US, he was very successful in promoting the Beppu and Yufuin spa areas to the world. Fittingly, he has been clothed in the local rugby team strip (even the little boy hanging from his cape has it) for the Rugby World Cup this year

50 min walk to the sand baths at the beach – very relaxing. Basically, you strip, put on a lightweight cotton yukata, then two ladies bury you in hot volcanic sand for 15 minutes. Amazingly it wasn’t too hot for me, the beach breeze kept my head fairly cool. On the way there, a long pier that looked equipped to berth fairly big ships (though I can’t see that it would be deep enough) was decorated with the Union Flag and the flag of Australia. Intriguing.

Afterwards, hopped on an Oita bound bus to visit the monkeys at Takasakiyama again. Main difference this time – it was bloody freezing with a stiff breeze. I envied the macaques their fur coats.

Headed back to the hotel to catch up on laundry and blogging.

Beerberg

Before dinner had a walk down to Beppu tower: https://www.japantowers.jp/en/. Kind of run down, many panes of glass with cracks and definitely needs a clean. Down one level to the bar, a curiously kitsch ’70s affair, with an older group (clearly regulars) round at the main bar. Oddly the barman didn’t invite me to sit there, but at the next side looking over Beppu. Pretty good view though. He kept the glasses so cold in the freezer, that the beer started to freeze at the bottom would then break off to form beerbergs of foam.

The 20Towers organisation promotes tourist sightseeing towers around Japan. Turns out I’ve now been to 5 out of the 20, a new list to conquer!!!:

Goryokaku Tower in Hakodate, Hokkaido
Kyoto Tower, Kyoto
Umeda Sky Building – Kuchu Teien Observatory, Osaka
Fukuoka Tower, Fukuoka
Beppu Tower, Beppu.

Could knock off 3 more on this trip – Tokyo Tower, Yokohama Marine Tower, Chiba Port Tower.

Dinner was the 2nd round at izakaya Kansha. Great grilled fatty Othoskh Atka mackerel with mushrooms stir fried in butter, washed down with Kubota highballs.

December 28th 2018

(bit like snakes and ladders, but different)

So in the end I only got 5hrs sleep. Judging by the state of my head, the second bottle of nihonshu (sake) had been a mistake… I took a walk out on deck during the night to see what conditions were like – Very blowy, could hardly stand up.

Went out on deck to watch the sun come up over the Seto inland sea. It would have been nice to do this trip during the day, as the landscape of the islands is spectacular and we went under several of the suspension bridges of the Shimanami Kaido (see trip notes from 2016). But that would have wasted a whole day.

View from the ropeway

On time arrival at 7.05am, and straight onto a bus to Beppu station. Little Mermaid café for breakfast (last visited one in Onomichi), waitress looked Indian but was from Fiji. Dropped luggage at hotel, no chance of early check in unfortunately so headed out on a local bus to Beppu ropeway, up Mount Tsuruga. Started to see tiny amounts of snow by the time we reached the ropeway terminus, and the temperature had dropped considerably compared to the coast.

Got a couple of good photos on the way up before the cloud closed in and the snow increased. On arriving at the top, immediately discounted walking the 10 minutes to the summit at 1370m – ambient temperature was -8degC, and the wind chill was brutal! Hopped straight back onto the next car down, even better views as the cloud cleared.

In the ropeway shop. Nope, me neither.

Waited in the ropeway shop looking at Kumamon themed souvenirs for a bit, but when the bus arrived it was full, so had to wait 30 mins for the next one. Back into the shop to get bored, better than freezing me nuts off outside.

Got off the bus at the top of the town, at the first of the jigoku, or ‘Hells’. These are hot spring features with different themes, the first was pools of boiling mud – the name was Oniishibozu Jigoku so called because the bubbles that form and pop resemble the shaved head of a monk. Others have milky white or blood red colourings from the dissolved minerals in the spa water, and one particularly intriguing one uses the water for heating pools for raising crocodiles. They had some truly impressive – and scary – specimens there.

At another, a large greenhouse heated by the springs contained flowering waterlilles, and even fruiting banana palms. The springs are also used to cook local delicacies – at this one, I tried a hot spring boiled egg. Startling colour inside, but very delicate flavour, very tasty with some salt and soy sauce.

Last one had a number of aquaria with some very large fish. The Colossoma were impressive, but even they paled into insignificance compared to the Pirarucu – at least 7ft long and with amazing red iridescent scales.

Yen. Honest.

Stopped for an excellent coffee, then bus back down to the station. Stopped at traffic lights by a greengrocers where I was puzzled as to why the grocer had drawn dicks on the produce signs – until I realised he was just a bit slapdash at writing the sign for yen. There were roadworks along the way as well – I counted 13 workers just to guide the traffic and retarmac about 5m of road surface.

Checked in at the hotel, and as soon as the spa bath was open headed there for a soak. Bliss. So tired after the ferry and long day crashed out for a few hours.

Went into town and wandered until I spotted an izakaya (Izakaya Kansha) that had an English menu. Pretty efficient – they had a printed one, but also had a QR code that you could scan to take you to a website in English and other languages with all the items and prices.

Dinnertime!

Toriten (chicken tempura), raw egg over a bowl of rice, edamame and miso. Washed down with an Oita Kabosu highball very tasty. Strolled the narrow streets, spotting some interesting bars along the way, and also a rather impressive mask of a tengu (demon) used in a local festival.

On the walk back stopped for a beer at a little bar called Route 10. More over manning – 3 bartenders (chief and 2 assistants), 6 customers, max 20? One of the barmen was from Kumamoto, had a good chat with them and on their request put a pin in their world map to show where I was from. Head guy said they got a reasonable number of visitors from the UK.

Observation: Patience here is a virtue for sure. Coffee at Little Mermaid this morning was made in a small drip machine fresh to order. Irish Coffee in this bar, made with a siphon coffee maker – slow heated over a spirit burner.