Beppu Jigoku and Beppu Christmas HANABI Fantasia

23rd November 2012

After leaving Showanomachi, me and my friends (SK, Ari and CY) continued our journey to Beppu 別府, a famous place for onsen in Japan. However, except for SK, three of us didn't go into the water, we busied ourselves visiting the Jigoku 地獄 (Hells!!!). Actually, when I first heard about this jigoku, I thought people actually dip into the water, it's spring water, right? Then, SK was like "what!?, nobody in their right mind will go into the pool" Hahaha.

We had lunch in a restaurant near the Beppu Station, the restaurant is famous for the Toritendon 鳥天丼. Well, it's actually fried chicken rice, but it's very delicious. One thing I love about fried chicken in Japan is there's no bones, just the easy to eat part! Whenever I eat chicken dish with bones, I will leave a mess behind, very ugly and messy. Just one thing not nice about fried chicken in Japan, they do not provide chili sauce! As a typical Malaysian, I like to add chili sauce or belacan to my food. (*Japan is very famous for the Karaage 唐揚げ, fried chicken, very juicy inside, much more better than KFC!)

Beppu famous dish - Toritendon 鳥天丼

After lunch, we went to all the Jigoku (地獄 hells). The first one we went was Tatsumaki Jikoku 龍巻地獄 (Tornado Hell). It's a geyser, so the spring water discharge is not continuous. If you come on the wrong time, then you have to wait for the next discharge. We waited for around 20 minutes for the next discharge because we missed the previous one. Well, I feel that it's not that beautiful. Special, yes, but not beautiful. 

Tatsumaki Jigoku 龍巻地獄

Chinoike Jigoku 血の池地獄 (Blood Hell) is next to Tatsumaki Jigoku. If the weather is nice, one can view a pool of red water. However, when we were there, what we could see was steam on a pool of muddy red water, not the red blood colour of water. A little bit disappointed, the weather didn't side with us.

Chinoike Jigoku 血の池地獄

The next destination is quite far from the Chinoike Jigoku, so we had to go by car. Now, the next hell is very interesting, in my opinion, the most interesting of all. Oniishibouzu Jigoku 鬼石坊主地獄 has many pools that emit mud bubbles. This mud bubbles remind of The Flintstones, I still remember a movie with dinosaur and how the ancient human escaped from the mud. (^0_0^)

Well, if the ancient human could escape from the mud pool, no one could survive a drop in the mud pool in this Oniishibouzu Jigoku. The temperate in the pool is boiling! Anyway, very interesting and I think if there's time constraint issue, all the others can skip, but this is the recommended one, must go! When we were here, it was snowing, although not so heavy until a layer of snow was formed on the floor, it's enough to make us happy! 

Oniishibouzu Jigoku 鬼石坊主地獄

Oniishibouzu Jigoku 鬼石坊主地獄 - special mud bubbles

Then next few hells were not as exciting after we have seen the mud bubbles. In Umi Jigoku 海地獄, Shiraike Jigoku 白池地獄 and Yama Jigoku 山地獄, the views were 70% to 80% covered by steam, so we could just catch a glimpse of the pool when the wind blew away the steam. A challenge for me, I kept trying to get a photo of a full pool without any blocking steam! At last, just gave up, I couldn't fight the weather.

Umi Jigoku 海地獄

山地獄

白池地獄

For Kamado Jigoku かまど地獄, it's quite special, there are many pools with different colours. It's due to the different minerals in the spring water. I am quite amazed because the pools are quite near to each other, but the colours are so distinct from each other, hahaha, the minerals distribution are so localized.

かまど地獄

Lastly, we went to this Oniyama Jigoku 鬼山地獄, so usual, I could only see the steam and read the information board. So, the clearest photo I got from here is the red ghost photo. Hahaha, now thinking back, even if the weather was good, the photo I could get is only pools of water!

Oniyama Jigoku 鬼山地獄

After visiting all the Jigoku, Ari, CY and I went to meet with SK. SK came to Beppu before, so he had no interest to tour this Jigoku again, (Plus, when he came here, the weather was very good, he managed to get really nice photos, it's the photo that enticed me to visit all this Jigoku in the first place), so he went to a special onsen place for mud onsen, when he came back to fetch us, he was so excited, he told us that the onsen was mix onsen, not a unisex onsen and many females just onsen'ing near the edge of the pool, well, in Japan, one of the onsen rule is to be naked when go into the onsen pool. When SK was enjoying the mud bath, a really brave girl just stood up and walked naked towards the centre of the pool. The males were having a eyes feast. Then, when Ari heard about this, he was really excited and he told us that he wants to visit a mix onsen too. So, I asked Ari and SK a simple question, will they allow their girlfriend or future spouse to enter a mix onsen, I got a big 'NO'. Mmmmmmm, man!

Anyway, after that, it's almost 5 pm, so we drove back to Beppu Station to park the car and got ready to go to the fireworks display. Wow, we waited for around half an hour for a place in the Beppu Station Car Park. Anyone who is interested to come to this Beppu Christmas Hanabi Fantasia, you better take public transport, or else you might stuck in your car and miss the fireworks. We were lucky because we got a spot. In the Beppu Station, there are many souvenir shops, I bought a citrus flavour sponge cake, it's very delicious.

near Beppu Station

After got a parking space, we walked to the venue of the fireworks display. Along the way, there were many stalls selling foodstuffs, although some looks appetising, we were not interested because it's damned cold. We wanted some place where we could sit down and keep warm. One of the specialities I noticed in the street was the Steamed sushi  蒸し寿司, there were few shops that sell this, however we couldn't imagine the taste of 'steamed' sushi. So, at the end, we had our dinner in a chain restaurant, Gusto ガスと near the venue. We waited for around 35 minutes, they were too many people, since the weather was so cold, all of us waited inside the small reception area to keep warm. 

Steamed Sushi 蒸し寿司

After we had our dinner, we braved ourselves and went out to the venue to watch the shows before the fireworks display. Weird, although Japan is not big in Christianity, Japanese are celebrating Christmas in full force. Kids singing carols, presents and Christmas trees. Although the weather was very cold, everyone was so happy and waited for the fireworks.

Beppu Christmas Hanabi Fantasia べっぷクリスマス花火ファンタジア

Well, the fireworks started on time. It's a synchronized fireworks like the one in Miyajima. Personally, I think that the Beppu Christmas Hanabi was more properly synchronized because most of songs were in English, I could understand that. When the lyrics were about love, the fireworks were heart shape, when the lyrics were about Christmas tree, a Christmas tree popped out. So amazing! Since I decided to properly enjoy the show, I just clicked the button of my camera without looking at the screen. My eyes were fixed on the fireworks only and I really enjoyed the fireworks display when I didn't have to worry about the photo. (Another reason was I knew that no matter how I try, I wouldn't get a stunning photo, so I just use intelligent mode and clicked through the show.)

Beppu Christmas Hanabi Fantasia べっぷクリスマス花火ファンタジア

Beppu Christmas Hanabi Fantasia べっぷクリスマス花火ファンタジア

Beppu Christmas Hanabi Fantasia べっぷクリスマス花火ファンタジア

When people were enjoying the show, no one yelled a thing because everyone was so into the performances and didn't feel the cold. However, once the fireworks show stopped and finished, many people were yelling, "寒い,寒い!" Kind of funny. Luckily, we anticipated for the crowd and we might lost each other, we set a place for a meeting point after the fireworks. The crowd was so huge, so the movement was very slow. Some cars even stuck inside the parking lot, couldn't get out. Ouch, the parking fees were increasing by the minutes. We walked back to the Beppu Station. We found out that there's another illumination shows in the Beppu Park 別府公園, so we decided to walk there and admired the beauty although we were shivering in cold. The illumination didn't make us disappointed, it was very beautiful, many structures glowing in dark. Of course, I took many photos. Oh, I love digital cameras, don't have to worry about films.

Beppu Park Christmas Illuminations 別府公園イルミネーション

After shot here and there, we decided to go back to Nakatsu. On the way back was quite scary because suddenly the weather became snowy, we had to drive slowly. Then, we reached Nakatsu quite late, I think already pass 12 o'clock. However, someone mentioned that there's a house which have really lovely illumination display, since we were in the mood already, we went to that place. It's so beautiful with all the cartoon characters. Wow, the owner really put in a effort. Although I would like to slowly admire the beauty, I was too cold, so I just quickly snapped photos and went back to the car. Others who were not afraid of the cold just stayed there longer to snap better angle photos, while I kept warm in the car.

A cute illuminations in Nakatsu City

A cute illuminations in Nakatsu City

A cute illuminations in Nakatsu City

A cute illuminations in Nakatsu City

When I finally back to my apartment, it's almost 1 a.m. already. I check the Yahoo Tenki (Yahoo天気), the temperature was around -1 degree Celsius in Beppu and Nakatsu. Wow, so crazy, to watch this illuminations and fireworks, I stayed outside shivering in cold, proud with myself, hahaha!