Beppu Jigoku Hell Tour Tickets

Beppu produces more hot spring water than almost anywhere on Earth, and the Jigoku, or Hells, are where that violence comes to the surface. These are hot springs for looking at rather than bathing in: ponds of steaming cobalt blue, blood orange red and bubbling grey mud scattered through the town’s Kannawa district, each with its own strange character and a century of sightseeing tradition behind them.

Touring the Hells

The classic circuit takes in seven hells, from Umi Jigoku, a sea blue pond wreathed in steam and set in pretty gardens, to Chinoike Jigoku, the red pond, and Tatsumaki Jigoku, a geyser that erupts on a reliable cycle. Most cluster within walking distance of each other in Kannawa, with two a short bus hop away. Between them you can eat eggs and puddings steamed in the spring vents, soak your feet in footbaths and watch the whole neighbourhood vent steam from its drains and gardens.

Making a Beppu day of it

Allow two to three hours for the full circuit, then do what the town intends and finish with an actual bath, whether at a historic public bathhouse or the famous sand baths where you are buried up to the neck in geothermally heated sand.

Getting there

From JR Beppu Station, buses run frequently to the Kannawa district in about twenty minutes, stopping at the Umi Jigoku area where the main cluster begins. Beppu itself is reached by limited express from Hakata in around two hours, or ten minutes from Oita.

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