25-26 August, Beppu, the "onsen" hell city.
A long tradition has taught Japanese that if you can't escape from volcanoes, since you've got them under your ass, then you build on them. and you also use their heat to create hot springs, called 'onsen'. Then looking at the steam of hot air coming out of the ground, you should be thinking about a possible eruption, and instead not, you think about what soup or 'ramen' you have to cook and even how to open a restaurant.
Of course, even the first inhabitants of the area had noticed the danger of settle in those areas. 'Jikoku', 'the hells', so they called them. and they found seven hell. In those places the water sources come out so hot that you could cook yourself alive only getting closer. Interpreting by local folklore and legends, the 'Jikoku' are the places where demons reside, who of course you need to keep at bay with ceremonies, rituals, offers.
Today, every hell is a theme park. You pass through, of course after an offer, being careful not to be 'kidnapped' or touched by the demon on guard. In fact, the demon on guard has incarnated in a replica, sometimes able to make some movements, with red flashing lights, with a bad expression that turns out to be only funny. The high-sounding voice typical of cartoons as background does not help the create the supposed fear effect.
One curiosity, in one of those hell they have crocodiles. They raise them, not as a sacrifice to the demons, only as leather for bags, shoes, various belts.
Returning to my hotel after being in the seven hell I asked the receptionist what he thought about having a volcanic activity under his feet.
He looked at me a little puzzled.
'No, I say. The fact that there are so many hot springs water, gases coming out of the ground, is a clear sign of volcanic activity, which could cause some earthquake, I don't know, some disaster, right?
He smiled at me almost. Maybe thinking: these tourists, hopeless, ah. Sighing.
'For us in Beppu, we don't think about it at all. It's all normal'
'Got it.' I closed the discussion, because there was none.
The next morning, in my sleep, I felt a vibration.
'It is nothing.' I said to myself.
I turned around a couple of times to get back to sleep. Vibration again. I stopped.
I opened my eyes waiting.
Vibration. That was stronger.
I was in a bunk bed, down, on the third floor in a structure built more than a hundred years ago. So it was reason why, as the receptionist's told me, they did not have an elevator, after I asked.
Vibration, the fourth in a few minutes. The bunk bed shook. I sprinted outside and landed on the ground like a cat, with all fours limbs.
'I run or I don't run.' I thought fast.
Around me the other roommates performed their actions with sleepy movements. They didn't even looked at me, and my cat position.
I resumed the upright position. I felt another vibration. And I started to think clearly. In front of the hostel they were building a shopping mall. They were digging, sure there were some heavy track passing . Here's the earthquake I was expected.
Once down. I told the what happened to me to the receptionist.
He answered again with that smile of pity for the average tourist.
I was a little offended by it and I asked again.
'Well' maybe I exaggerated, but in Japan there are often earthquakes. And I'm not the one who invented them.
He agreed.
'For example when was the last great earthquake?'
'In 2016,' he replied.
'Of course, of course. The Fukushima earthquake. The one that broke the nuclear power plant.
'That's right!' He said getting serious.
'It was a real tragedy. I wonder now how things are in that area'
'What?'
'I mean...' And here I stopped. I did not know whether or not to mention the fact that there have been a suspicious silence about the real effects of radiation from the nuclear reactor. '... I wonder, well, it's been a disaster for the people, for nature and for the flora and fauna all around.' I said being vague.
'In fact. We Japanese, too, it was very shocking for us. Even thinking about the effects of radiation.
'Yes, in fact.' I could talk about it, he introduced the argument. 'What do you think? Because in Europe, we did not get very clear information about what happened after the accident.'
' Here, too. There have been some television reports on the effects, talking about the sea, how nuclear slags have spread to the south. But then nothing more.'
'What do you mean with nothing more?' I asked surprised.
'Nobody hasn't spoken about it again.'
'But isn't it weird? You don't want to know what really happened, do you?
He looked at me trying to consider very well the the words to use. After all, I was always a tourist.
'And why? Even if you know everything, what should people of those parts do? or all people of Japan what should they say?
'But...' and I stopped on that 'but' because he concluded.
'Once it's happened, the only thing you can do is start again. And accept all the consequences with it, because other choice is not possible.
What to say; the force of sacrifice has no half ways.
We looked at each other for a while.
'However the "onsen" is a wonderful invention.' I said to break the silence.
'That's true.' He agreed.
And I told him about my impressions about it.
The goal was to visit at least 7 or 8 of them.
The first was the sand beach 'onsen'.
After queuing for 40 minutes I entered in the area of the hot sand. I followed the directions of a girl and found myself in front of a rectangle marked on the ground. Aside a guy invited me to lie down. I did. He told me to put my arms along my hips and not move. With shovel and bucket, I would say, it covered me with black, volcanic sand. Time 10 minutes he destroyed his creation and I'm in the shower. Intense and fast.
Muddy "onsen".
Everything was going faster there. I had to take a shower. This is a basic rule for every 'onsen', even if you've washed twenty times before. It was not necessary in the sand "onsen".
I sat on a low stool and starting throwing water at me with a small bucket. They didn't have a Western shower. I was washing myself for 20 minutes. All clean, I got muddy in few second. Slimy and warm I tried to move in the tub. After a while I gave up and went out. Too hot mud. I was waiting a minute to get back in, but it was too late. The tub was filled with a new clean group of people. I waited for them to leave. They went away after few minutes as well, but a new group came in. The scene repeated itself for a while, until the mud on my body started to dry, giving me itching. I just had to go back to the shower and try another "onsen".
Hot blue tub "Onsen" .
This was just the typical "onsen" I imagined. The water was blue, due the sulfuric elements in it. it was outdoors, surrounded by trees. I could notice Japanese immersing in the water with a small towel folded over their heads. I threw myself in, after greeting everybody as the etiquette "onsen" suggests. But I was too fast. I created few small weaves in the calm waters and on the relaxed Japanese. I could only hear sighing. I apologized indiscriminately to the four directions. I dove in and kept myself quiet.
Meanwhile around me there were just males, because in Japan men and women are in strictly separated areas, sat with their fat or slim body in front to each other chatting quietly with their balls in good evidence. They dove in for few minutes and then sat again on the edge of the pool in open sight to dry like naked lizards. Those who were alone, after ten or more minutes, washed themselves and went out. I stayed quite a bit between boiling and drying. I finally understood why the towel on the head. There were no space to put it anywhere. In fact I had noticed that and I put mine to hang on a tree branch. And when I did, other sighing.
Oven herb "onsen"
Yes, just like to be in a oven. I washed myself again. And while I was trying to wear my 'yukata', a quiet lady from the "onsen" explained to me what to do.
'No, Japanese. English, please'. I told her.
'No English, Japanese, ' She replied. So She kept on explaining, and through her gestures I understood what I had to do. Then She added
'Eight minutes'.
The 'beep' of a timer rang and she opened a dwarf door that introduced me into a half-natural, half man made cave. The ground was covered completely of grass, which looked like hay, and smell like ti as well. covers. I followed her instructions, put the towel on the stone pillow, lied on my back and then it began the roasting. Eight long minutes of cooking and I felt like a pizza feels. The 'beep' came to free me. Once out the lady told me:
'Very, very well, no?' And it made a mimic purified deep breath.
Felt like a turkey cooked in oven with herbs, I could go just to sleep.
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