On Friday afternoon we set out for the town of Beppu. Beppu is on the other side of the island of Kyushu from Sasebo. Because Grant is a speed demon we got there in about two hours. Beppu is known for its onsens or hot spring baths.
We picked Ben up from school and headed straight out. Here he is busily working.
And here is he is a few minutes later sleeping! He slept most of the trip.
Our room at the Kamenoi Hotel. We booked our hotel through the Travel and Tours office on base. We were originally given a smoking room and when we went to the front desk they told us they were completely booked. Well I rolled the babies around the corner as well as Ben and they quickly gave us a non-smoking room! So much nicer!!! Our first room had the standard two double beds but our second room had four beds! I think a lot of extended families travel together in Japan. They even have rooms with 6 beds! Right when you walk in the room they have slippers that you put on while in the room. Ben thought these were pretty cool.
That is the bathroom step Nate is up on. The bathroom is elevated.
Our cool room.
Piper is happy. Both babies are now pulling up on everything. The beds in our room were the perfect height from them to pull up on.
Our first night we ate sandwiches in our room and then set out for their ginza. This was some sort of shrine in the middle of the ginza. This man with the big nose signified something.
Ben took this picture of Grant and I.
This is the nose on the figure in the shrine.
Starting Ben off early.
They had street tiles on the ground which lit up every few seconds. Their manhole covers even had fancy designs on them. Japan doesn't miss anything!
A public bath/onsen in the middle of the ginza. This onsen had machines where you paid to enter. The onsens have a side for men and a side for women. Once inside you completely undress and bath yourself at a sit down shower type thing. Then you enter the bath, still completely undressed, in front of everyone. It definitely takes some getting used to!
This is a foot bath right outside of the onsen. It is based on the honor system. You put your coin in the box and rest your feet in the water. It feels sooo good!
On Saturday morning everyone was up VERY early so we grabbed a few breakfast snacks and headed for a local park.
Mommy jungle gym!
After breakfast we were going to go to a local indoor water park but because we were up so early we still had a little time before it opened. We explored around town and found this beach sand bath.
They fill up pools of sand with the hot thermal water, drain it and then bury people in it.
They had a fun little waterfront area there too that we explored.
This is the drain from the beach pool area.
Acquabeat indoor water park.
These slides come out of the building and go back in.
These type of steam vents were visible all around town.
The baby pool inside acquabeat. Piper and Nate loved getting in the water. Since they can hold themselves up now they really had a good time holding on to the side and playing.
Opps, daddy let Piper fall in!
The kids pool area was nice but a little small. It really didn't matter though because there was hardly anyone else there. It was soooo hot inside acquabeat.
Nate ready to get in.
The wave pool.
They also had a lazy river area.
The babies were so tired after playing. I can't believe how big they now look in the stroller. Time is flying!
After the water park we headed over to Takasakiyama Monkey Park. It is basically the side of a mountain that has been taken over by monkeys. We walked up a hill and there they all were. It was so weird. They can be pretty aggressive so we made sure not to look them in the eye and we left pretty quickly.
Monkeys roaming freely everywhere.
I put hats on the babies and Ben to make sure the monkeys couldn't see their eyes very well in case the kids looked at the monkeys the wrong way!
I'll let you figure this one out...
Actually they all pick at themselves and each other but this position was just too funny to not take a picture of.
We could see monkeys in the trees all the way up the mountain.
Once back at the hotel I decided to brave the public bath at the hotel. As I left our room I told Grant I felt like I could throw up. I was so nervous about bathing in front of other people.
It actually wasn't too bad.
The awesome Indian restaraunt we found in the ginza. Yummy!!!
The ginza had tons of small side streets. It reminds me of scenes in Memoirs of a Geisha.
Cars actually drive down some of these streets!
Takegawara Onsen - This is another sand bath onsen. Next time I would like to go there.
Ben riding Anpanman at our hotel.
Breakfast at McDonald's on Sunday morning. Once again we were up VERY early. I had to take this picture. I wonder how many kids will eat corn for breakfast. McDonald's serves corn with their happy meals and Ben got a happy meal breakfast. He wolfed down the corn.
The babies playing footsie.
After McDonald's we set off for the beach sand bath. That is Grant there getting burried. You lay down in a hole they dig and they cover you all the way up to your neck in hot sand.
Grant relaxing. You lay there for 15 minutes.
Ben, the babies and I went out exploring while Grant bathed.
We found this cool lantern out in the bay.
Here I go. You wear a robe and nothing else!
Are my 15 minutes up yet? I was trying to get out at this point. I started to get a bit clausterphobic about 5 minutes into it.
Ahhh!! Afterwards you go back in the changing room and wash off and get in a hot bath!
After the beach bath we headed to African Safari. This is a popular zoo like park in Beppu.
The most fun we had was riding the jungle bus. Ours is the one on the left.
Waiting for the bus.
We were given this container of food for each of the different animals we saw.
Feeding a goat?
Feeding raw chicken to the lions! It was crazy!
Nate made a new friend. Actually a few new friends. This lady held him most of the trip and then he was passed around to others on the bus. Piper would never let anyone do that to her!
After the bus ride we walked around the inner park area.
It wasn't too spectacular but as usual it was very intersting!
Rudolph in Africa land! I told Ben he was checking on him for Santa!
One of the exhbits was cat world. You literraly pay a few bucks and walk into a room filled with free roaming cats...
The cat from Austin Powers! He was so friendly!
My biggest laugh of the entire trip came from this moment.. Back view...
Front view... The sad thing is it was cold outside and they had a little girl who looked younger than Ben with them.
She is well on her way to looking just like them.
After Safari Land we made a quick stop at the Jigoku's or Burning Hells. They are basically little parks with unique hot springs in them Beppu has several of them. There are eight right in a row so we just chose one to see. The one we went to was called Umi and the water in the hell looks a lot like the sea. Another has a pool of boiling mud and another has a pool with white water. We are already planning another trip to Beppu to see the other hells.
On May 5th they celebrate boy's day or children's day in Japan. People display fish flags in celebration of this day and Umi Jigoku already has theirs up. I am sure I will learn even more about it in the next few weeks and will post more about it.
A random pool in the Umi-Jigoku.
The hot spring behind us.
They boil eggs in the water and sell them.
Messy ice cream on our way out... Time to go home and plan our next trip to Beppu!!
