Beppu

Beppu sits at the western rim of Beppu Bay, where Kyushu’s Ōita Prefecture meets a pattern of river channels and volcanic slopes. The city occupies a narrow ribbon of land—roughly five kilometres from east coast to foothills—carved by the Asami, Haruki and Sakai rivers as they drain into the Japan Sea. Beyond this alluvial plain, terrain rises abruptly toward forests and folds of volcanic highlands, including Mount Tsurumi, Mount Yufu and Mount Ōhira. Many of these peaks are latest-phase Quaternary cones, their fumarolic vents still active. Beneath the urban grid, faults trace the fan’s margins, venting heat that feeds Beppu’s celebrated hot springs.

With a subtropical humid climate, annual temperatures average 15.2 °C. Summers are warm, peaking at about 26.2 °C in August, while winters are cool, dipping toward 4.3 °C in January. Rainfall totals roughly 1,663 mm each year, with early autumn—especially September—bringing the heaviest downpours. Snow is rare, and the mountains hold mist more often than snowdrifts.

Early records place Beppu within the bounds of ancient Bungo Province. By the Kamakura period, its sulfurous pools had attracted samurai seeking to tend their wounds. The Meiji era opened the first modern port—Beppu Port, later Kunisaki Port—in 1871, linking the city to Osaka and inland sea trade routes. During the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877, that port served as a logistical staging point for the Imperial Army. Hot-spring tourism began in earnest in 1879 with Takegawara Onsen, and by 1885 connections to Uwajima in Shikoku carried visitors across the Inland Sea.

The village of Beppu was established with Japan’s modern municipalities system in 1889 and attained town status in 1893. A merger with neighbouring Hamawaki in 1906 brought the population to just over 12,000. Rail arrived in 1911 with Beppu Station, and in 1923 a seaplane service to Osaka added a novel link. On April 1, 1924, the settlement achieved city status—with 32,276 residents—commemorating its centenary in 2024. After World War II, the former US occupation base, Camp Chicamauga, returned to local use and reopened as Beppu Park in 1979.

Today tourism underpins the local economy. Geothermal springs—over 150 bathing facilities within a handful of districts—form the city’s lifeblood. Collectively known as Beppu Hattō, the eight principal hot-spring areas are Beppu Onsen, Kankaiji, Kamegawa, Shibaseki, Kannawa, Myōban, Horita and Hamawaki. A bespoke stamprally invites visitors to collect eighty-eight seals—after which they earn the title onsen meijin, “spring master.” Historic establishments such as Takegawara Onsen, Myōban Yunosato and Hyōtan Onsen retain their 19th-century layouts, their wooden screens and sapphire-tiled pools recalling Meiji-period leisure.

Alongside pools fit for repose, Beppu preserves sites meant only for spectacle. The Jigoku Meguri, or “hell tour,” guides travellers through seven steaming, acid-tinted pits that bubble between 50 °C and 99.5 °C. In Kannawa, clustered within easy walking distance, Umi Jigoku (“Sea Hell”) churns cobalt-blue water, while Oniyama Jigoku (“Monster Mountain Hell”) shelters crocodiles in steamy vats. Two additional spots lie in Shibaseki, accessible by a short bus ride. Tatsumaki Jigoku, a geyser pit, now follows a 30- to 40-minute eruption schedule, offering timed shows amid rolling vapour clouds.

A further attraction lies beneath the beach. Beppu Kaihin Sunayu—offering sand baths and foot baths since 1940—has lain dormant since April 2023 for redevelopment; plans aim for a 2025 reopening. Meanwhile, sand baths at Hyōtan Onsen and ashiyu foot baths at various sites—including Umi Jigoku—continue to ease sore feet with warm grains or shallow soaks.

Beyond the springs, Beppu reveals its quieter charms. Beppu Park, at the city’s heart and fifteen minutes’ walk from the station, houses camphor trees and seasonal azaleas. Each late July, 5,000 fireworks ascend from barges on the bay in the city’s signature display. Once every three years, the Beppu Contemporary Art Festival—entitled “Mixed Bathing World”—transforms public spaces into outdoor galleries.

A slender landmark, Beppu Tower, has surveyed the bay since 1957. In 1962, the Beppu Ropeway connected city streets to Tsurumi’s summit ridge, extending leisure into pine forests above the haze. Retail nodes have evolved too: Tokiwa Department Store opened in 1988 at Kitahama, and YouMe Town Beppu replaced an old port zone in 2007.

Nature remains close. Yufugawa Canyon, named one of Ōita’s One Hundred Views, carves red sandstone walls cloaked in bamboo and fringe ferns. Designated sections of Aso Kujū National Park touch the western reaches, where oak forests give way to rhododendron slopes. Otobaru Waterfall lies twenty minutes’ walk from Wonder Rakutenchi, the retro amusement park at Yufuin’s foothills. Kijima Kōgen, halfway up toward Yufu, combines an eighteen-hole golf course and hotel with tilted rides and roller coasters on a highland plateau. Takasakiyama Monkey Park, ten minutes by bus from downtown, safeguards more than fifteen hundred Japanese macaques in temperate oak forest. At 600 m above sea level, Shidaka Lake reflects mountain clouds beside a cedar grove.

Despite its coastal setting, Beppu stretches long and narrow, hemmed by sea and ridge. The train station sits at one end; most onsens cluster in Kannawa toward the other. Tour buses link these zones every thirty minutes, and one-day passes—available at the Foreign Tourist Information Office—grant unlimited rides for around ¥900 (students ¥700). Tourist offices at JR Beppu Station, Kitahama and Kannawa provide maps, schedules and internet access without charge.

By air, Ōita Airport offers forty-minute shuttle buses at roughly ¥1,450 to downtown; a service from Fukuoka Airport on the Oita Expressway takes 110 minutes for about ¥2,000. Rail travellers choose the JR Nippo Main Line’s Sonic limited express, departing Hakata and Kokura twice hourly, or the San’yo Shinkansen to Kokura, then Sonic onward; fares vary from ¥4,230 (one-way from Kokura) to ¥5,570 (one-way from Fukuoka), with group discounts reducing costs further. Overnight options via the Sunrise Izumo or Sunrise Seto sleeper trains connect Tokyo at lower rates under a Japan Rail Pass, except for private compartments.

Maritime links once centred on Beppu’s own port; today ferries connect Yawatahama and Beppu six times daily, while services from Kobe and Osaka call at Oita or sometimes anchor directly at Beppu. High-speed routes have ceased, but the Kansai-Kisen overnight vessel still provides a direct Osaka–Beppu run, leaving at 19:05 and docking at 06:55.

Amid its famed springs, Beppu has long carried a dual reputation. In the late 20th century it earned the nickname “Las Vegas of Japan,” less for gaming tables than for a visible red-light economy. City officials in recent decades have sought to reshape that image, emphasising family-friendly attractions and cultural festivals. To many non-Japanese visitors, such vestiges of that era remain muted or hidden in side streets.

As Beppu marks its centennial as a city in 2024, a balancing act continues between the frank heat of its mineral waters and the subtler warmth of daily life. Fishermen mend nets at dawn along the bay; families gather at ashiyu pools after dusk; artists unfurl installations in former bathhouses. The city’s character lies in these overlapping layers—a land of steam and cedar, fault and fountain—where every thermal breath speaks of ancient fires and modern endurance.