Oita （大分）- Beppu （別府）Day trip - the oldest hot spring (23rd May 2015)

When you are searching for hot spring in Japan, Beppu, （別府）which is located in Oita 大分, will definitely bounce up in your search engine!

This time, we went for a day trip to explore what we can do.

 Inside the Beppu station, there is a souvenir shop and you can do your last minute shopping there!

Oh and there is a free hot spring for hands. You can stick your hands there to feel how the hot spot in Beppu is like!



Near the Beppu station, the buildings look very modern and similar to Tokyo but as you go further, buildings are more traditional and there are less people around.






This time we are actually looking  for the oldest hot spring in Beppu. It is a very well-known one within that area.

 It's called the Takegawara and it took us quite a long time to find it! Cos it's like in one of the back street road which requires effort to find it. (We actually went the wrong way and went passed a lot of dangerous night clubs with strange looking guys and girls...)

But then if you ask local people, it's easy to find it. It will take about 10 min to walk from the station.

This one is a very traditional one and the setting inside is quite old too!


Unlike the hot spring I had introduced previously, this one is very simple and there is only 1 hot spring area.



Oh and you won't believe the price! It's only 100yen to enter!

But if you are going for the sand hot spring, it will cost 1030 yen.

Just a quick reminder: as it is a very local, simple, old hot spring, they won't provide you a thing. So you have to bring your own towel, shower requirements etc.



<----- queuing up for a ticket!

You have to take off your shoes and put it on the shelves provided before you enter!

And there is a resting area outside. So if you have finished, you can buy a drink there, sit down and watch tv.

Oh and the security isn't very good because there is kinda no door behind the curtain. So you better not get changed in front of the curtain!









This hot spring is the hottest one I have ever had because I can't endure even 5 minutes having my full body embedded into the water!! But the grannies in that hot spring was like -> this is very normal... and glared at us strangely.

There is only 1 hot spring and there isn't a cool water pool, so you have to go between the shower and the hot spring while you were there....

I guess that explains why it's so cheap...
For more info about this hot spring:  http://www.city.beppu.oita.jp/01onsen/02shiei/04takegawara/takegawara.html


After hot spring, we went around to explore the area before catching the train to Kumamoto.


We stopped by a Japanese bar which also sells Beppu food.

This ume (plum) wine is the best one I have come across.

Because I don't really like the taste of alcohol, I usually refused to drink during holiday. But then this one has a very strong plum taste which covered the alcohol taste!!! So it's like plum juice!


It came with the special class and I swear I fell in love with plum wine after this bottle! This is like double plum shot!

 Toriten - Fried chicken that is extremely famous in Beppu! It's very crispy on the outside and very soft in the inside!! Plus, the sauce and lemon!!! yum!!

Fried chicken but different part and with different sauce.

Onigiri (rice being squeezed into a ball) with soy sauce

It's not just a normal onigiri but it was pan-fried so that the rice on the outer layer is actually hardened!

rice with flavouring and soup

Oh and before rushing to the station, we saw this Green tea milk ice-lolly! It's similar to the Kyoto famous green tea one so I also really recommend you to eat it!!

The shop is called mochikichi and it's located in a lot of the area!
So you don't have to come all the way to Beppu to eat it actually

For more info: http://www.mochikichi.co.jp/shop/detail.php?sto_id=22




Next time we will be heading to Kumamoto! Please stay tuned for that!