Ibusuki

Onsens, hot springs, are pretty common around Japan, but they're especially common in this area, because of the active volcano nearby. However, there is a town not too far away from Kagoshima called Ibusuki which is one of the few places in Japan where you can go to a sand onsen. It's supposed to be a cool (but hot) thing to do and good for your health. Asians think everything they do is good for your health, though. Also famous in Ibusuki are floating noodles, an interesting way of eating somen noodles (I think it was somen...).

I had been hoping to get down to Ibusuki at some point during my time here, and luckily over summer break, one of my Japanese teacher friends had to drive down to check up on one of our students who was doing an internship at a hotel there. So she invited me to go along.

On the way, we stopped at a rest stop and I took some pictures of Mt. Sakurajima from afar. It looks much smaller when it's not a swimmable distance away.

Here are a views from a couple other directions at the rest stop.

When we got to Ibusuki, if I remember right, we first stopped at the hotel, got a tour from the manager (it was a pretty cool hotel), and then sat down with our student for about 20 minutes. They were speaking all in Japanese, except for occasionally saying something in English to me, so I didn't understand much. Apparently the student didn't have a single good thing to say about the experience, and felt like every day was excruciatingly long (although she'd only been working there ten days at that point, in a two-week gig). I guess she won't be going into the hotel business.

After that, we went to a nice floating noodle restaurant, one side of which was a big stone wall with waterfalls and a little crick with fish.

It's a water mill.

Each table has a little circular river apparatus, with a trap door. When you lift up the flap, everything drains into the center and goes down a drain to the trash.

Then when you close it, cool water rushes around endlessly.

Then the waitress brings a basket of noodles, which you can toss into the water. Then you just grab a bite's worth of noodles with your chopsticks.

We also ordered some other stuff, which was okay. I'm not too keen on onigiri (rice triangles), but I had some, and we also had some sweet potato things, which were good.

 After lunch, we went over to the sand onsen. It's a bit pricey, 800 yen compared to around 360 for a regular onsen bathhouse, but it's novel, so they can charge more. The deal is, you put on a yukata, which is a light robe, and some slippers, and you get covered in wicked hot sand by old people.

 Under the canopy is a line of people, side by side, covered in sand, and the old people are hanging around there with shovels, working up and down the line as people come and go.

Actually, there were only maybe three other people there when we got there. You are only supposed to stay in for ten minutes, fifteen tops, so people come and go pretty quickly.

The deal is, the onsen provides the yukata and slippers, but you have to bring your own small towel. An old person wraps it around your head/neck and you have to hold the corners with your teeth. I guess this is so you don't get sand in your hair. Once they cover you up at the top, you can let go, and the towel stays where it is, because of the sand all around. Then they take your picture if you've brought a camera.

The sand is quite hot, heated by the hot water below the surface, and you have to wriggle around in there sometimes to make sure you don't get burned. I actually did get burned a little bit in one spot, but nothing major. We stayed under for about 12 minutes. I probably could have gone a little longer, but that was enough for Misaki, so I figured I'd get up, too. Apparently some people find the experience like really profound and the heat affects them and they get all zen or something. But it's just sand, man. I just felt like I was covered in hot sand.

After the sand-covering, you're all covered in sand, so you can go to the little bathhouse to clean off. It's a thing. First there's a little tub with buckets and scoops, and you have to take off the yukata and put it in a special basket, then dump water on yourself to get all the sand off. Then you can rinse off in the shower and get into the bath to soak. In these types of baths, you can't use soap in the shower, because the water is all recycled and they don't want it contaminated. So you're not exactly clean when you leave, but good enough. We were fortunate enough to be alone at this point, so I took advantage of the situation and snapped a couple shots of the bathroom, never having been able to do that before due to privacy issues. Unfortunately this bath isn't anything to write home about.

Outside the building is a view of Mt. Kaimon, which is called the Fuji of the South, because it has a very similar shape. You can see all the steam rising from the hot water below. Crazy, man.

They use the water to boil eggs, which you can buy for 50 yen apiece. Ha.

 After this, it was time to go home. We stopped at another rest stop by the famous Lake Ikeda, which has the Japanese version of the Loch Ness monster, Issie. Here's a statue of Issie. The lake also has these giant eels. Screeching eels. So you can't go swimming in there, although some people fish.

Tankuki village. Scary.

Here are some more shots of Mt. Kaimon and Lake Ikeda.

It looks like a nice lake.

The End.