Beppu

Kyushu, Japan · City

Japan's densest concentration of hot springs, spread across eight separate onsen quarters: in Kannawa the steam rises straight off dozens of rooftops at once, the seven 'hells' are boiling, impossibly coloured ponds you look at and never enter, and at the Mushiyu you lie on a bed of medicinal herb inside a stone chamber full of natural steam, as people have here since the 13th century. At Kamegawa beach they bury you in hot sand.

The essentials

Getting there

Train — Train from Fukuoka, also has its own airport

What it is genuinely strong in

♨️ Onsen / Ryokan🛌 Pure relaxation🧘 Wellness & unplugging

Frequently asked questions about Beppu

What to do in Beppu: 54 activities

• Hells Tour (Jigoku Meguri) 2.5 h must-see

  A tour of hot springs in impossible colours, not suitable for bathing. Planning warning: five of the seven hells are in Kannawa and two in Shibaseki, three kilometres away. The water in the Umi Jigoku is at 98 degrees and several pools sit at around 90: they are to be looked at, not bathed in, and nobody should lean out over the fences or go near the drainage channels.

• Kannawa Mushiyu, the herbal steam bath 0.75 h must-see

  Founded in 1276 by the monk Ippen. You lie for eight or ten minutes on a bed of sekisho, a medicinal herb, inside a stone chamber full of natural steam, then rinse off in hot-spring water. It is the only place in Japan preserving this form, and it accepts tattoos.

• Hot Sand Bath (Sunayu) 1.5 h must-see

  You are buried in hot volcanic sand on the beach, an experience unique to Beppu. To be precise: there are two different sand baths in Beppu, the indoor one at Takegawara and the beach one at Kamegawa. There is a strict limit of about fifteen minutes, get out at the first sign of dizziness, and it is not advised with high blood pressure, heart disease, pregnancy or alcohol.

• Beach sand bath at Shonin Park 1.5 h booking

  Bayfront complex opened in the summer of 2025 on the former Kamegawa beach. You lie for about fifteen minutes under sand heated by thermal water; the sand is reheated nine times a day and rotated rather than reused.

• Beppu Bamboo Crafts Center 1.5 h booking

  Beppu takezaiku is Japan's benchmark bamboo basketry, recognized nationally as a traditional craft. The centre has a permanent display of master pieces, an open workshop where you can watch the craftsmen work, and hands-on classes.

• Beppu Rakutenchi 3.5 h

  Opened in 1929, the oldest amusement park in Kyushu and a gem of retro styling. You reach it on a 260-meter funicular at a 30-degree gradient, in dog- and cat-shaped cars running since the park was founded; it has Japan's only double ferris wheel, duck races and a hot spring bath with views included in the ticket.

• Beppu reimen 1 h

  Born in 1950, when a cook repatriated from Manchuria opened a place with Korean influence. Thick, chewy wheat and buckwheat noodles in a dark beef-based broth with cabbage kimchi and chashu; some sixty or seventy places serve it, in cold and hot versions.

• Hyotan Onsen 2.5 h

  Three stars in the Michelin guide and open until one in the morning: hot-water cascades for neck massage, a sand bath, steam baths and private family baths, plus steam cooking and a famous pudding.

• Onsen-do, the 88-bath stamp book 2 h

  A 100 yen stamp book and about 150 participating baths. At 56 stamps you get hotel discounts; at 88 you reach meijin rank and a black towel with your name embroidered in gold thread, like a martial arts belt. You can build it up over several trips.

• Round of 100 yen neighbourhood baths 2 h

  The jimoto-sen of Kannawa cost 100 yen or nothing and run on an honesty box. Strict etiquette: wash outside the tub, keep your towel out of the water, do not dilute the hot water, and rinse the bucket and stool when you leave. Soap and shampoo are banned at Sujiyu, and many baths do not admit large tattoos.

• Taishu engeki popular theatre 2.5 h booking

  On the seventh floor of the Kitahama department store: popular melodrama and dance spectacle in lavish costume, daily performances and a different troupe each month. There are table seats for dinner during the show and chairs right up against the runway.

• Touring the eight hot spring districts 8 h

  Each one is different: Beppu is the central district and the festival site; Hamawaki has springs rising at the water's edge and inns from the old pleasure quarter; Kamegawa the beach sand bath; Kannawa the steam in the streets; Kankaiji the panorama; Myoban alum and mud; Horita the most remote; and Shibaseki has imperial visits documented in the year 895.

• Umi Jigoku, the 'Sea Hell' 1 h

  The most famous of the jigoku, with an intense turquoise colour from its minerals.

• Yu-bukkake and the burning of Mount Ogi 5 h booking only early April

  Part of the hot spring festival in early April: 111 tons of thermal water are prepared for people to throw over each other (you must register in advance and places are sometimes drawn by lot), and at dusk the slope of Mount Ogi is burned in a controlled fire that turns the whole hillside red. Many municipal baths open free of charge on those days.

• Yukemuri viewpoint 0.5 h

  Free platform above Kannawa where you see steam rising from dozens of roofs at once; the view is officially listed among Japan's hundred landscapes. Cold, damp weather pushes up far more steam, so winter is the season.

• Yunohana huts of Myoban 1.5 h

  The yunohanagoya are thatched huts where minerals from the steam crystallize at about one millimeter a day over a month and a half. It is the only place in the world where the technique survives: Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property since 2006 and Important Cultural Landscape since 2012.

• 'Midori no Taiyo' mural by Taro Okamoto 0.25 h

  On a facade two minutes from the station, made in 1969 with Shigaraki tiles that Okamoto chose himself while working on the Tower of the Sun for the Osaka Expo. It is the only mural of his left accessible this way, open and free.

• A Relaxing Afternoon at the Ryokan 2 h

  Free time to enjoy the accommodation's private hot spring baths.

• African Safari 4.5 h booking

  In Usa, fifty minutes by bus from Beppu station: a nearly hour-long circuit in an animal-shaped bus, feeding lions, giraffes and elephants through the barred window.

• Beppu Onsen Festival 3 h only 1-5 Apr

  An annual spring festival celebrating the city's hot springs with street dances, parades and fireworks. Its correct name is Beppu Hatto Onsen Matsuri, it began in 1910 and runs from 1 to 5 April; the 1st is the day of thanksgiving to the hot spring waters.

• BEPPU PROJECT and the works spread across the city 2 h

  The arts NPO founded in 2005 runs a shop-gallery of local products, an artist residency open to visitors in a former apartment block, and a series of eight installations spread across the city, one of them light-based and visible only after dark.

• Beppu Ropeway and Mount Tsurumi 2.5 h

  A ropeway ride to the summit of Mount Tsurumi, with panoramic views of Beppu, the bay and, on clear days, Mount Aso. It climbs to the 1,375-metre summit in about ten minutes; from November to March it closes at half past four in the afternoon, and the service is suspended in strong winds.

• Beppu Tower 0.75 h

  Built in 1957 by the engineer Tachu Naito, the same man behind Tokyo Tower: 100 metres with an observation deck at 55. It was first called the TV Tower and became Beppu Tower in 1961.

• City walk with a painter 2 h booking

  Small-group walk taking in the Okamoto mural, the Takegawara, the wooden arcade and tea at the artist residency, ending with a postcard carrying a pencil sketch made during the walk. Book three days ahead.

• Global Tower at B-Con Plaza 0.75 h

  A glazed 360-degree observation deck by Arata Isozaki, from 1995, whose night view is registered as Japanese night-scape heritage. It is usually empty.

• Guided walk with local residents 2 h booking

  Around twenty walks led by residents through the eight districts, in morning and evening versions. It is the best way to reach alleys and baths a visitor will not find alone.

• Hachiman Asami Shrine 1 h

  Beppu's main Shinto shrine, set on a wooded hill with views of the bay and the city's hot spring steam.

• Historic Takegawara Onsen Public Bathhouse 1 h

  A bathhouse dating from 1879 with traditional architecture, including a hot sand bath. The ordinary bath costs three hundred yen; it has been a Registered Tangible Cultural Property since 2004 and closes on the third Wednesday of the month.

• Kijima Kogen Park 4.5 h

  It is indeed in Beppu, thirty-five minutes by bus: home to 'Jupiter', Japan's first wooden roller coaster, more than forty rides, a three-dimensional maze and, in winter, the largest outdoor ice rink in Kyushu.

• Lake Shidaka 3 h

  At 600 metres of altitude and half an hour by bus: rowboats, bike rental, barbecues and free camping. In summer it is noticeably cooler than the city.

• Mount Takasaki and its macaques 2 h

  It is in Oita, not Beppu, though it is sold as a Beppu attraction: ten minutes by bus. Around 1,500 wild Japanese macaques in two troops that take turns on the feeding ground, morning and afternoon.

• Mud bath at Hoyo Land 1.5 h

  In Myoban, milky white water and a mud bath that is mixed-gender and outdoors, divided by a bamboo fence, with separate access for women. The mud is used as a scrub. Watch out for the submerged steps, which are impossible to see.

• Night illumination at Umi Jigoku 1.5 h booking only mid-to-late September

  In September the sea hell opens at night with lighting, projections and music over the steam and the cobalt pond; confirm the dates for the year.

• Restaurants cooking with volcanic steam 1.25 h booking

  Beyond the municipal workshop, Kannawa has chef-driven cooking done in the steam ovens: from high-end Italian to medicinal cuisine, steamed pizza and pork buns, one of them in a former Meiji-era hospital.

• Steam-cooked pudding from the Myoban hell 0.5 h

  The original jigoku-mushi purin, cooked in the steam of the hell, next to the shop where you buy genuine yunohana.

• Summer fireworks over the bay 3 h only late July

  In late July, fireworks launched over the bay with the city behind, with food stalls and seating areas along the beach.

• Terraced baths at the Suginoi 2.5 h booking

  Stepped baths above Beppu Bay, in Kankaiji, open to non-guests as well: Tanayu until eleven at night and the water garden until ten. Confirm prices and availability, which change with the season.

• The two hells of Shibaseki 1.5 h

  Planning warning: five of the seven hells are in Kannawa, but Chinoike and Tatsumaki are three kilometres away, in Shibaseki, and need an extra bus ride. Tatsumaki is a geyser that erupts every thirty or forty minutes; a stone slab above it keeps it from reaching its real height, for safety.

• Toji, the long-stay thermal cure 72 h booking

  Beppu still has toji lodgings: therapeutic stays of several days with your own cooking and several baths a day, mainly in Kannawa and Myoban. This is the city's real proposal for rest, as opposed to a one-night ryokan.

• Toriten 1 h

  Chicken in tempura batter, the specialty of Oita: eaten with ponzu and karashi mustard, not with the usual tempura dipping sauce.

• Tsurumi summit on foot 5 h

  From the upper ropeway station it is fifteen minutes to the true summit, and demanding routes run from there to the neighbouring peaks. More than 2,000 cherry trees in early April, rhododendrons in late May, red leaves from October and rime ice from December to March.

• Umitamago aquarium 2 h

  Next to the above and also in Oita: a main tank with some ninety species from the Bungo Channel, dolphin and walrus shows and an outdoor water play area.

• Volcanic Steam Cooking at Jigoku Mushi Kobo Kannawa 1 h

  A communal kitchen in the Kannawa district where vegetables, eggs and seafood bought at the local market are cooked in the natural steam of the jigoku hot springs. You pay by steamer and by time, you may bring your own food, alcohol is banned and you have to clean the table yourself. Outside there are two free foot baths, one of water and one of steam, the latter the only one of its kind.

• Wooden arcade of Takegawara Koji 0.5 h

  Completed on 1 December 1921: the oldest surviving wooden shopping arcade in Japan, 61 metres with a glazed roof. It declined when the port moved and is now reviving with cafes and bars.

• APU university campus 1.5 h

  On the slope above the city, with students from more than ninety countries: this is what explains Beppu's unusually international atmosphere. The grounds are free to walk and the cafeteria is open to the public at cost price, except at the midday rush.

• Beppu Art Month and Art Fair Beppu 4 h only autumn (September-November) and a fair in late January

  The art month runs in autumn and the fair in late January, at several venues downtown. Warning: the former 'Mixed Bathing World' triennial is no longer held as such, although its committee still produces these programs.

• Beppu Christmas Fantasia 2.5 h only the weekend before Christmas

  On the weekend before Christmas, fireworks launched from boats offshore and synchronized to music, plus children's choirs and stalls. Free, ten minutes on foot from the station.

• Beppu Park 1 h

  Large urban park halfway between the station and the convention centre; this is where residents do hanami in late March.

• Beppu-Oita Mainichi Marathon 4 h booking

  On the first Sunday of February, one of Japan's oldest elite races: it starts at the foot of Mount Takasaki, climbs to Beppu International Port and finishes in the Oita stadium. The qualifying time is demanding, so for most people this is an event to watch, not to run.

• Private sauna by reservation 2 h booking

  Beppu's contemporary sauna scene has its benchmark in an alley downtown, with cooling and air bathing combined with thermal water. A good counterpoint to a day of hells.

• Sol Paseo Ginza and the Tokiwa 1.5 h

  The covered shopping arcades downtown, with their slightly worn showa look, and the city's only department store. Not a shopping destination, but the walk has its appeal.

• Statues of Kumahachi and Ippen 0.25 h

  Aburaya Kumahachi, the father of Beppu tourism, has his statue outside the station and it is the city's classic meeting point. In Kannawa, visitors pour hot water over the statue of Ippen, who founded the district in 1276, while asking for healing.

• The geothermal plant at the Suginoi hotel 0.5 h

  1,900 kilowatts running since 1981: the first power plant owned by a hotel in Japan. Its stepped cascades work as cooling towers and are a point of interest in themselves; the separated water is reused for heating and hot water. This is modern geothermal Beppu, not the folkloric one.

• Yoga and Onsen Retreat in Kannawa 1 h booking

  In Japan's largest hot spring district, several operators run multi-day retreats combining yoga classes, brief meditation, and guided hot spring bathing — this is not a single daily drop-in class but a scheduled program with set dates.

What only happens on specific dates

• Beppu Art Month and Art Fair Beppu autumn (September-November) and a fair in late January
• Yu-bukkake and the burning of Mount Ogi early April
• Beppu Onsen Festival 1-5 Apr
• Summer fireworks over the bay late July
• Night illumination at Umi Jigoku mid-to-late September
• Beppu Christmas Fantasia the weekend before Christmas

Chains well with

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