Page 241 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide: Japan
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K YUSHU 239
the waters of Ocean Hell tional samurai and thatched-
(Umi Jigoku) are the roofed houses, located beside a
color of a tropical sea, warm stream, have been care-
while Blood Pond Hell fully converted into a collection
(Chi-no-Ike Jigoku) takes of folk-craft galleries at the
its color from dis solved Kyushu Yufuin Folk Art Village.
red clay. Visitors are It contains a museum of crafts,
shown and sold baskets and local artisans can be seen at
of eggs that have been work making ceramics, toys, and
lowered into pools for glassware, among other items.
hard-boiling. Waterwheel at Yufuin Folk Art Village There is also an indigo dyeing
Many of the baths are house and a miso factory.
attach ed to hotels but also 4 Yufuin
open to the public. For high Yufuin P Sueda Art Museum
kitsch and hilarity, the hugely Open daily. &
pop ular Suginoi Palace, a hotel Oita prefecture. * 12,000. £ n at P Yufuin Trick Art Museum
JR stn (0977) 84-2446. _ Yufuin Basin
on the western fringes of town, Festival (Aug 15 & 16); Film Festi val Open daily. &
is an irresistible hot-spring (late Aug).
fantasy. Built in 1879 just inland E Yufuin Folk Art Village
from Beppu Bay, Takegawara Yufuin spa town, known Open daily. &
Bathhouse is one of Beppu’s throughout Japan for picturesque
oldest public baths, in which wisps of morning mist rising 5 Usuki Stone
visitors are buried in black-sand from its thermally warm lake,
baths before plunging into is located at the foot of Mount Buddhas
adjacent hot pools. Up in the Yufudake. In contrast to Beppu, Usaka Stone Buddhas
hills north of Kannawa, Myoban it aspires to be a more refined Oita prefecture. £ Usuki stn, then JR
Hot Spring is a quieter place to hot spring, priding itself on bus to Usuki-Sekibutsu.
which Japanese have been elegant country inns, boutiques,
coming for well over a thou sand summer concerts, and a host Despite the wide
years for curative baths. For an of museums and galleries. dissemination of images
overview of Beppu, climb the Yufuin’s more highbrow of Oita’s Seki Butsu (stone
125-m (410-ft) Global Tower, pretensions are evident from Buddhas) throughout Japan,
between the station and the moment you arrive at JR the site itself is, fortunately,
Suginoi Palace. Yufuin Station, a cedarwood only a minor tourist
construc tion with a area. Although some
Boiling Hells sooty, black exterior realignment and
Tel (0977) 66-1577. Open daily. & intended to suggest the fissuring has been
Suginoi Palace boiler of a loco motive. caused by centuries
Tel (0977) 24-1141. Open daily. & The station, which was of earth tremors in
built in 1990 by Arata the area, the 60 or
Takegawara Bathhouse Isozaki, has art displays more consummate-
Tel (0977) 23-1585. Open daily. & in its exhi bition hall, and ly carved Buddhas
Myoban Hot Spring the floors are heated at Usuki remain
Tel (0977) 24-2828. Open daily. & from an under ground remarkably intact.
hot spring. Though it is
Serene Lake Kinrin One of the Usuki probable that the
is the centerpiece of stone Buddhas work was begun
Yufuin. A walking and during the late
cycling path follows the shore, Heian period and completed in
passing through lakeside the early Kamakura era, there
woods. Shitan-yu is an old appears to be no consensus
outdoor bath with a thatched regarding the origin of the site,
roof beside the lake. The bathing who commissioned or executed
here is mixed, as baths often the carvings, or why such a
were before the arrival, during large, relatively remote area was
the Meiji period, of Americans dedicated for the images.
and Europeans who shamed All of this adds a great deal
the Japanese into segregating of mystery and charm to the
their baths. place. Late afternoon is very
The Sueda Art Museum and atmospheric, when sculptured
the Yufuin Trick Art Museum sunlight draws out the earth
are both worth visiting for their hues from the faces and torsos
Eggs cooking at one of Beppu’s original postmodernist of these mysterious and
Boiling Hells architecture. A cluster of tradi- peaceful stone Buddhas.
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