Amagase

Despite Beppu's reputation as one of the best onsen towns in Japan, I found it dirty, sleazy, and overcrowded with tourists for the most part. I ventured about 30 km west--past the far superior but still touristy onsen town of Yufuin--to Amagase, a regional secret unheard of to most non-Kyushu residents. The small town is situation on a river, and small hotels, restaurants, and apartments dot both banks, linked by a series of six bridges. Onsen are located literally in the river, separated from the freezing river water by stone barriers. Hot sulfuric water is piped in from the volcanic mountains just behind the river's banks.

Who needs pilot wings when you have a captain's hat?


My room in the "ryokan," a traditional Japanese inn with tatami-mat rooms. A one-inch thick futon is rolled out for sleeping, and "chairs" consist of two-inch thick cushions. But hey, you pay extra for that. The added bonus is that onsen ryokan have public baths on the top floor, generally consisting of three or four massive sulfuric hot tubs, a sauna (this one complete with televised sumo matches), a foot massager, and sit-down showers. I would've included pictures, but I don't think a dozen naked Japanese men would've been too thrilled.


A riverside onsen. These things are close to boiling--literally. They keep their saunas at around 90 degrees Celsius (remember that 100 is boiling), and the onsen aren't too far behind.

The anonymous river that cuts Amagase in two: