A local girl in Nagoya — the town where the ground boils, the ponds are blood-red, and everyone is having a lovely time.
💴 Budget: combined ticket for all seven hells ¥2,200 · single hell around ¥450
📍 Where: Beppu, Oita prefecture, Kyushu — about 2 hours from Hakata by train
😰 Difficulty: easy — gates open around 8am, and the steam does the entertaining
1. Beppu is Japan’s onsen capital, and its star attraction is the jigoku meguri — the “hell tour” of seven violently colorful hot springs
2. These hells are for looking, not bathing — cobalt-blue ponds, a blood-red lake, a geyser on a schedule
3. One ticket (¥2,200 , valid two days) covers all seven
4. The town around them is one giant steam vent — even the street gutters smoke
The first thing you notice about Beppu is that the whole town smokes. Steam rises from hillsides, from hotel roofs, from cracks between houses — the city sits on one of the most active geothermal fields on Earth, and it long ago decided to make that its entire personality. We came on our Kyushu trip and went straight to the strangest attraction Japan has to offer: a formal sightseeing circuit of hot springs so extreme they were named after Buddhist hells. The photo above is from Chinoike Jigoku, the “Blood Pond” — a lake the color of rust, mentioned in texts over a thousand years old, now visited by families eating pudding steamed in volcanic vapor. That contrast is Beppu in one sentence.
How the hell tour works
- Seven hells, two clusters. Five sit close together in the Kannawa district, walkable between each other; two more (including Chinoike and the geyser hell Tatsumaki) are a short bus or taxi ride away. Plan Kannawa first, then hop over.
- Buy the combined ticket at the first hell you enter — ¥2,200 for all seven, valid two consecutive days.
- The headliners: Umi Jigoku, a pond of impossible cobalt blue; Chinoike Jigoku, the red one; Tatsumaki Jigoku, a geyser that erupts roughly every half hour or so — check the board at the entrance and time your visit.
- Eat the steam food. Eggs, pudding and vegetables cooked in volcanic steam (jigoku-mushi) are sold at and around the hells — the pudding at Chinoike is the classic move.
TSŪ INFORMATIONwhat Japanese connoisseurs know
Why “hells”? For most of history these ponds were not attractions but hazards — scalding, sulfurous, useless for bathing — and locals described the cursed ground with the Buddhist word jigoku. The colors are pure chemistry: iron oxides paint Chinoike red, dissolved minerals turn Umi Jigoku its unreal blue, and white clay clouds the White Pond Hell. Several of the hells are designated national Places of Scenic Beauty — you can see the designation carved into the stone in our photo. The 通 move at the end: the hells themselves are look-only, so finish the day the way locals do, soaking at an actual onsen — Beppu has more hot-spring sources than any other city in Japan, and the rickety old public baths in town cost a few hundred yen.
Quick facts — Beppu hells
💴 Tickets: all 7 hells ¥2,200 (2 days) · single ~¥450
⏱ Hours: roughly 8am–5pm — go early, tour buses arrive mid-morning
🍮 Eat: steam-cooked pudding and eggs (jigoku-mushi)
FAQ
Can I bathe in the hells?
No — they run far above bathing temperature, some near boiling. A couple of the hells have free foot baths fed by cooled water, so bring a small towel. For a full soak, the town’s real onsen are everywhere and cheap.
Are all seven worth it?
Honest answer: no. Two or three are jaw-dropping, the rest are pleasant-to-mildly-commercial, and a couple lean on animal exhibits that some visitors will want to skip. If your time is short, do Umi Jigoku and Chinoike Jigoku and call it a triumph.
Is Beppu doable as a day trip?
From Fukuoka, yes — but Beppu is a place whose whole point is the evening soak and the steam drifting past your ryokan window. Stay a night if you can.
• Beppu jigoku meguri = sightseeing circuit of 7 extreme hot springs · look, don’t bathe
• ¥2,200 covers all seven, valid 2 days · gates ~8am
• Best of the seven: cobalt Umi Jigoku · blood-red Chinoike · the Tatsumaki geyser
• Eat steam-cooked pudding · finish with a real onsen soak in town
• From our own Kyushu trip · nobody paid us anything
More from us: Beppu pairs perfectly with the calm canals of Yanagawa for a two-speed Kyushu itinerary. Planning the whole trip? Start with the Perfect Japan Guide.