Sand

We had agreed to do some sporty activities today together and the plan was to gather in the hostel's common room at around 2.30pm. That would leave me plenty time to do two special onsens today. The first one being a sand bath at the beach. I figured this would be a good one to start with as it was relatively close to the hostel and a good base from where to get to the second onsen. Rina, a guest from the onsen, told me how to find the place and after a short walk from the trainstation i found myself in the sand bath place. I got a short explanation at the ticket booth. Basically what you do is wash yourself like you do before you enter an onsen and only put on the yukata that is provided to you. The sandbath itself is mixed gender and that is probably also the reason why you keep your yukata on at all times. Even when you are buried in sand.
I entered the sandbasin and was instructed to lay down in a small pit that was already dug. Once i layed down. the ladies began to bury me in hot black vulcanic sand. It was a really weird sensation. Almost like somebody covers you with a really heavy electric blanket. And even though the sand was not that hot, the fact that it covered my entire body except my head made me sweat profusely. You stay buried for around 15 minutes which was enough for me. The ladies checked up on me every couple of minutes or so. I don't know if it was standard procedure or because they saw me sweating like a hog. :-P Finally the sign was given and with some instructions from the crew i was able to free myself from the sand. I couldn't wait to get under the shower since the sand was everywhere. I rinsed of all the sand from the yukata and also myself and after getting dressed i went on to the next onsen. It was called Hoyo onsen and although it's quite far from the center of Beppu it's still a favourite among onsen frequenters because beside the normal onsens it also has an mud onsen. This was something i just had to try! My google maps app said it was only one walk away and so i decided to walk to the onsen. Wat Google maps forgot to mention, however, was the fact that the entire walk was uphill for one hour straight. I was still sweating from the sandbath and walking uphill in the scorching sun made me sweat even more. I think i drank two liters of water without even having to pee once.
I finally arrived at the onsen and quickly found my way to the outside mud onsen bath. Now my experience has tought me always to be careful as the bottom of the onsen is not always visible and almost always treachourous since it's made up of natural stone. And of course after two steps in i slipped and fell head first in the muddy water. Obviously onsens are a serious thing so nobody laughed out loud but i am pretty sure most of the folks had to hold in their laughs seeing me go down. the bath itself was surprisingly nice and not smelly at all. It is said to give you a smooth and clean skin so that's always good. I had to leave the onsen pretty early because the way back would also be an hour walk and it was already half past one in the afternoon. The walk back to the hostel was nice as it gave me a chance to cool down a bit. As i got back to the hostel, most of the group was already there and we set off to the baseball batting venue first. There were several pitching machines with various speeds and effects. I found it pretty hard to actually hit the ball right, although i managed to hit some homeruns. ;-) I played some airhockey with Rinasan and after a short game of pingpong we walked back. Halfway through the walk we found a bamboo forest with some loose bamboo and Toshi thought it would be nice to bring some bamboo with us to use as decoration for the hostel. He carried these three meter long bamboo stalks all the way back to the hostel, sometimes blocking traffic when we crossed a road. We stopped to get some beer and went on to a park to play some volleybal. It was already getting dark and it was time to get back to the hostel. Rinasan and i decided we had walked enough and took the bus while the others walked the last bit. Rinasan went straight back to the hostel and I wanted to get one more portion of those delicious Gyoza i ate two days ago. Unfortunately the restaurant was closed and so i had to make do with a salad and some beer from the local konbini. When i got back at the hostel the others were already there and after watching a Japanese dubbed episode of Knight Rider and some more beers i went to bed. Again knackered. ;-)Read more