Anne and Mikey in Oita: Day 1- The Hells

A couple of weeks ago my very awesome and every-good-adjective friends, Anne and Mikey came to Oita to visit me! It was a much anticipated visit- my first friends to visit my new home and take a glance at my new life.

Boy, did we cram a lot into a couple of days! It was just like old times- hanging out, joking around, catching up, seeing my area's landmarks and eating copious of food- I couldn't have envisioned a greater time!

We started off their stay with dinner- Oita style- i.e. too much food and a high motivation to finish it all. Or maybe that's just me...

Day 1, Saturday:

First lunch. Toriten, my region's speciality food. TEMPURA CHICKEN. Yep, as healthy as it sounds. Man it was good! (Oita fact #4366- Oita is the largest consumer of chicken in all of Japan. Yeah!)

Then we visited "THE HELLS"ー 地獄. What a name! It's basically 8 different natural onsens (hotsprings) which are only for viewing, rather than bathing. Each has its own characteristics which set it apart from the others.

The first three- absolutely spectacular!

We were all in awe at the beauty of the sea hell (Umi Jigoku). It was the most stunning blue water I have ever seen. We couldn't help but try one of the creme caramel puddings made in the onsens- yum, yum, yum- I highly recommend!

The mud hell (Oniishibozu Jigoku) was also a marvel- watching the onsens bubble as if they were alive was mesmerising. The splattered edges of the onsens looked like a Jackson Pollack art work!

The white pond hell (Shiraike Jigoku) was also very interesting- it featured onsens with milky-coloured water.

And then, things got weird and unethical.

The next onsens featured caged animals. A LONE elephant, a lone hippo, monkeys, with diseased bottoms, and a single black swan in an enclosure with flamingos. Thr there was the crocodile onsen, which had about 60 odd cricodiles packed in a tiny, tiny pond. Animal hell indeed!

We were all really upset seeing these animals treated so badly. They looked sad. They had no spirit in them. It broke my heart!

We didn't get time to see the last three, so I'm not sure how they are! My recommendation is skip the animal and crocodile ones... And instead savior the beauty of the first three.

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