Ureshino to Unzen

A travel day today, with our final destination being Unzen, a sulfurous hot springs located in a national park on the Shimabara Peninsula not far from Nagasaki.

After breakfast at the Taishoya, we proceeded to check out and catch a bus to our next destination.  As the bus station was only two blocks from the ryokan, we planned to just roll our suitcases over.  The staff at the hotel would hear nothing of it and insisted on taking us over.  Well, they did so in style, as the pictures below attest.

After that start, it's no surprise that it was downhill from a transportation standpoint.  The bus to our train was a local city bus that was uncomfortable and, we thought, a bit expensive for what we got.  We made it to the train station just in time, and the train portion of the trip was quite nice.  It was an express train on the Nagasaki line that, although not a Shinkansen, was very comfortable and fast.  We then had to switch to a local bus to get to Unzen.  The bus station was rundown and had very few (read - no) amenities.  We caught our bus, which was also a bit rundown, for the last leg into Unzen.  In any event, we are here.

Unzen, as I mentioned above, is a sulfuric hot springs and the smell is just part of the town (the locals say they can't smell a thing!).  Bathing in the hot spring water is said to have beneficial healthful effects.  We'll see.  The town itself is a little run down and has a a sad feel to it.  We went for a walk and stopped at a little place for a snack where it wouldn't have surprised either of us if we were the only customers of the day.   Although the town is full of hotels offering hot spring baths, it doesn't really have an upscale, vibrant feel to it.  The pictures below are of our hotel and of one of the springs (jigoku, the are called, which means "hell" in Japanese).

Now in case there is any confusion, you don't actually bathe in the spring itself.  The water from the springs is  piped down to the baths in the hotels.  We plan to try the bath after dinner and will report later.

OK, it's later.  Much later in fact.  The bath was good.  Both Andrea and I were afraid that the sulfuric nature of the water would give off a nasty smell in the bath.  It did not.  And the water felt good.