Going to Hell

Chee-no-eekay Ji-go-ku and Ta-tsu-ma-kee Ji-go-ku

Yesterday I visited two of the eight Jigoku Hells. The Jigoku Hells are hot springs that will probably boil you to death if you stepped foot in them. They are located in the Kannawa district of Beppu. The ones we went to are actually located in the Shibaseki district of Beppu, not all that far. We walked about a mile and a half from Kannawa instead of taking the bus, on a pretty road. It was cold and windy unfortunately, but the rain held off and it turned out to be a beautiful day, I think.




We went to Tatsumaki Jigoku first, which is a boiling hot geiser that shoots off every half hour or so. It's protected by rocks, otherwise it would shoot up over 30 meters. This was the smelliest of the two and reeked of sulfur, but that's only if you decided to walk into the steam. Just the steam was hot enough to send you back a few feet!



















Next we went to Chinoike Jigoku, also known as the blood pond hell. The clay in this hotspring makes it appear a blood red color. When the steam blew in your direction, step back! This one was very hot, even when I got the picture from at least 20 meters up. This one smelled a little like clay and if you looked into the pond, you could see the hot clay at the bottom. The water was very clear and only the bottom was red.

For lunch I got takoyaki from a small vendor across the street. Eight for 500yen! Takoyaki is octopus, in a soft, squishy wheat flour blend then fried in a special pan to make these little balls! It's then topped with tempura flakes, bonito flakes and japanese mayo. They are very much a comfort snack here in Japan. (This is not my picture, I ate mine too fast to take a picture!)

Takoyaki Recipe