December 27, 2021: Traveling to Yufuin
With the new year right around the corner, Bryan and I joined the Castillos on a trip to Yufuin and Beppu for a relaxing end-of-year adventure. Bryan and Chubes had to work on December 27, so Kaiti picked up the rental van and I had our bags packed and ready! As soon as the guys made it back to Hario, we hit the road for our 2.5 hour trip east!
We arrived at our AirBnB in Yufuin around 6pm and were blown away by our house. We chose this place for one reason: the private onsen! Both Beppu and Yufuin are known for their public hot springs, known as "onsens," so when it came to choosing a place to stay for our long weekend, we wanted to splurge and find something with a private hot spring on property. We lucked out and found this home with an indoor and outdoor onsen, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a formal Japanese dining room and a great lounge area for playing board games at night! We couldn't have asked for a better place to spend the next few days!
Eventually, we headed into town to find dinner. We stumbled upon Avatar, an Indian restaurant, that turned out to be a delicious introduction to Indian cuisine for me! Bryan had a favorite Indian restaurant he would visit when he was in dental school back when we lived in Greenville, NC, but I never had the chance to try it. So I let him take the lead and he ordered for both of us! Together we enjoyed some butter chicken curry, tandoori chicken, butter and herb naan, garlic naan, jasmine rice, and mango lassis. By the end of the meal, we were filled with good food and plenty of laughs!
Of course we ended our night with a soak in our private onsen! Once Kaiti and Chubes put the girls to bed, they brought out the baby monitor and joined us for a night of drinks, chatting and soaking in the natural minerals from the hot onsen bath!
December 28, 2021: Visiting Beppu
We started our second day by driving through the mountains to the town of Beppu. Beppu is known all over Japan for its Seven Hells. These seven hells are unique hot springs for viewing, rather than bathing, and seemed more like a tourist attraction than anything else. The Hells offer a ￥2000 pass to visit all seven hells, but we opted to pay the ￥400 fee at each, since we didn't think we would visit all seven.
We started our tour of the area by visiting the Umi Jigoku, the sea hell, which features a pond of bright blue, boiling water. As we walked up to the Umi Jigoku, we noticed steam vents coming out of the ground and the stench of sulfur, which reminded Bryan and me of the creepy Osorezan Buddhist Temple in Aomori from our first trip together in Japan! The stench was pretty strong and it made us happy that masks are still required in Japan- even if it is just a small extra barrier! I was shocked when I saw little huts set up over some of the vents, where people were cooking eggs in the sulfur vents. Apparently, it's good luck and increases your fertility to eat a Beppu sulfur egg. We happily skipped the snack.
As we walked up to the Jigoku, we noticed the cerulean blue waters, sky-high steam and we could feel the heat on our faces from the boiling water! It was a pretty unique view for sure! Around the corner was a Torri Gate and a bright, red bridge that led to a small Shinto shrine.
We continued exploring the area and ran across the Chinoike Jigoku, the blood pond hell, which gets its name from the dark red mud that bubbles up to the surface.
Watch this short clip to see what the hells were like. (Just imagine smelling a rotten egg at the same time and it's like you were there with us!)
Before visiting the next hell, we hit the footbath, where the water from the hot springs is cooled over bamboo rods and then pumped into the communal foot bathing area. I could have spent the rest of the day sitting here, in the sun with my feet soaking in the hot mineral waters. Whew! It was the definition of perfection! I'm not sure what the floating melons were for, but the foot bathing area was designed with relaxation in mind!
Then we walked to Shiraike Jigoku, the white pond hell, which was a little underwhelming. This hell is known for its milky-white water, but after visiting the others we weren't as impressed. This hell also had a small aquarium that had some ugly fish in it. I can't lie- they were plain ugly fish and not even worthy of photos. As we left, I thanked Chubes for saying we didn't need to get the full seven hells pass- visiting these three was enough to get the vibe!
By this point, we were hungry! I branched out for the second time this trip when we chose to eat Thai food. Again, Bryan was a step ahead of me and had enjoyed some Thai food when he had a port call in Guam during the last patrol, so he helped me pick out some food! Ruanmai Thai Restaurant didn't disappoint, as we enjoyed delicious Thai tea; Bryan had the red curry with chicken and rice while Katie enjoyed fried chicken with rice and a spicy sauce we can't remember the name of. We left cultured and full! I mean, check out the pictures below: this Thai restaurant sure knows how to serve a pretty plate! Our carrots were carved into flowers!
After lunch, we headed to Beppu Beach! During my research, I found that the Beppu Beach Sandbath is the highest-ranking must-do in the area, so Chubes, Bryan and I decided to give it a try! (Kaiti happily sat this one out with the girls, since they were too little for the spa.) The sandbath is just as it sounds- some local old ladies bury you in hot sand that has been soaked in onsen water! When else will I willingly get buried in hot sand on a beach?
So we walked in and paid ￥1500, and were each handed a yukata robe and shown to the locker rooms. The guys went their way to change, and I entered the girl's locker room. After stripping down and putting on the yukata, we met back up outside at the sandbath pit. While we waited, I watched as steaming onsen water was pumped into the pit on the far side, and a group of five older ladies used these hoe/shovel sticks to dig holes for us to lay in.
Now keep in mind it is about 40 degrees outside, so we were freezing as the wind blew and we stood in our thin robes waiting our turn to be buried! After a short wait, we were told to lay down as the ladies used their hoe/shovels to literally bury us alive. Then we enjoyed 15 minutes of blissful warmth as we soaked in the natural minerals and relaxed to the sounds of waves hitting the rocks below us. It was heavenly!
After the most relaxing 15-minute sandbath, we were sent back to the locker rooms to shower off the remaining sand and get dressed. At some point we missed getting towels, so all the three of us had to drip dry and get dressed in soggy clothes...not the best situation, but since nobody spoke English and we were practically naked, there wasn't much we could do about it! Bryan was above drip-drying so he used his shirt to dry himself off some before putting back on his sweatshirt. The boy couldn't survive in the wild!
Once we got dressed, we made our way back to the car and headed back to our AirBnB in Yufuin for some more relaxing time in our private onsen! I'm telling you, we are living the best life.
December 29, 2021: Exploring Yufuin
I started my morning off with a cup of Kaiti's home-roasted coffee and a foot soak in the onsen. This is the life! I even sweet-talked Bryan into taking his socks off and joining me. The only way I will ever enjoy 30-degree weather is with my feet in hot water and a cup of Joe in hand.
We started our day pretty late with the hopes of getting pizza at a local shop overlooking the mountainside. The reviews were great, the view looked spectacular and we had our hopes high...until we pulled in to find out they were closed. This is one part of Japanese culture that I just don't get: they will close down or change their hours without updating their website, Google or Instagram! (We have tried to do our due diligence in researching, but it just doesn't help!)
As we sat in the parking lot looking up other places, we found another Italian restaurant that looked like a barn in the photos...but we were hungry and figured we would give it a shot! We learned that the restaurant was family-run, and the father studied in Italy for some years before moving back home to open his restaurant! The sets we ordered were fabulous and definitely satisfied our pizza and pasta craving!
After lunch it began to rain and seemed like the weather could get nasty. The Castillos wanted to go to a motorcycle museum in town, so they dropped us off at the house to enjoy (you guessed it) more time in the onsen! I'm getting my money's worth out of this experience!
After a few hours of drinking and soaking in more natural minerals, we got cleaned up and headed into town to explore Yufuin's shopping district. Yufuin's Floral Village was a quaint little shopping area with a cat cafe, owl exhibit, and little huts with themed shopping options. We explored the area for a while and then headed back out to the main strip, where Bryan and I found a pet store and bought some new treats for Hugo and Reynolds to try! We can't be the only cultured Johnsons in our house!
We ended our day with another failed dinner...Yufuin Burger House. Their own sign out front said they were open until 5 pm, but at 4 pm the building was dark and the doors were locked. So we picked up burgers across the street at their competitor- Yufuin Burgers- and took our food back to the house to enjoy.
I can say that this was another successful trip and, after the bustling trip to Tokyo, just what we needed to end our holiday break! I mean, just look at Bryan's face as we left on the morning of the 30th:
If that doesn't show you how good we have it, I don't know what will!
Until next time,
Katie
If you had buried me in that sand, you could have left me there. You know now I am with clothrophia and you want to bury me live,Idon'tthinksol;