Thats “Hot baths and cocks” to non-english speakers, I’ll elaborate..

Beppu has an area known as “The Hells”, its an area of about 10 natural springs (Onsen) that are all themed up in wonderfully tacky ways. Thats the “Onsen” part of the joke..

The steam is literally shooting out of the ground in some places in the city, a lot of the vents have been capped and used to heat the Onsen, this one was just firing off into the air

In fact its like that all over the city I started by walking out to the farthest 2 hells – Chinoike and Tatsumaki.

Chinoike is a bright red colour due to the clay in the water, it also smells like eggs

Tatsumaki is a geyser, except unlike Geysir in Iceland this one fires for about 10 minutes, unfortunately theyve capped it off to stop it spraying everywhere. It looks a little shitty like that.

I decided to get the bus back to th

e others as the walk back would have been uphill Next on the list were the main Hells

This one is Shiraike Jongku or “White pond hell”, the water coming out of the ground is actually clear but for some reason it turns white on contact with air. It looks a lot like the Blue lagoon in Reykjavik but you cant swim in it.

Not so exciting this one, the water is just spraying about and theres a load of sad looking animals loafing about

Umi Joguku was a bit more interesting, again the water is a lovely blue colour but they steam eggs over it Behind is a tiny shrine and Torii gates

These gates look wicked in the 3d photos but you cant see them here :p

Another one with boiling mud. I left in search of the Hihokan sex museum down the road from all the Hells, what a laugh that was! As you go in they have a tonne of wooden cocks from fuck knows where and a load of statues performing various dodgy acts. Round the back is a giant 6 foot long wooden cock, which looks hilarious in the 3D pics.

Upstairs was this small slot in the wall (yes, shaped like a set of flaps) and youre invited to put one eye up to it and push the button. This happens:

I lol’d. E even started to ROFL’d a bit

Downstairs they have a sex scene from Snow white and the seven dwarves, you hit a button and it all kicks off.

The best part? Grumpy in the corner trying to tug one off

Walked around the city for a bit after that and now I’m waiting for a party to start in the hostel so I can have some Sake