Beppu 別府
Touristy onsen town
On Kyūshū’s northeast coast, Beppu is one of Japan's most famous hot spring resorts and has long attracted throngs of Japanese visitors.
While it offers an unmatched amount of thermal waters and a wide range of baths, including hot water baths, mud baths, sand baths and steam baths, some foreign visitors will consider Beppu more than a tad touristy.
Beppu also boasts a set of seven ‘hells’, ‘jigoku’ in Japanese. These are hot springs for viewing rather than bathing, such as bubbling mud pools, boiling ponds and a hot geyser - Jigoku-mushi ‘hell steaming’ ia a local cooking method.
Only 10km inland from Beppu, Yufuin may be considered a more genteel onsen retreat.