What Is Beppu? Eight Hot Spring Areas, the Hells and Steamed Food

Published 2026-10-04 · Sources checked 2026-10-04 · Treasure Hunting Co., Ltd.

This guide is for visitors who are deciding what to do in Beppu and want a plain overview first. It covers the eight hot spring areas, the hot spring "hells" that people tour, and the steamed food called jigokumushi. Everything comes from the city's official tourism site.

We read the English pages of Beppu City's official tourism site, Beppu Tabi, on 2026-10-04. We name no hotels, shops or restaurants, and we give no prices, because we did not check them.

The eight areas called Beppu Hatto

The tourism site says there are eight hot spring areas in Beppu City, known as Beppu Hatto. It says each has its own character, such as the quality of the water, so a hot spring tour is possible inside one city. It says Beppu is number one in Japan in both the amount of gushing water and the number of springs. We have not checked that claim ourselves.

• Beppu Onsen: the site says it was mentioned in writing in the early 8th century and grew in the Meiji period with the port and railways. It names the wooden Takegawara Onsen as a symbol.
• Hamawaki: the name comes from springs gushing out on the beach, and the site calls it the birthplace of Beppu Onsen.
• Kamegawa: known for a natural sand bath, where the city-run beach sand bath sits in a corner of a seaside park.
• Kannawa: the site says steam rises all over, and it calls this the area with the best hot spring atmosphere of the eight.
• Kankaiji: a large resort area with a large open-air bath and a wide view.
• Horita: an old transport hub toward Yufuin and beyond, with a city-run bath that has an open-air section.
• Shibaseki: the site says it has long been known as a wound-healing spring, and the city bath has an open-air bath among trees.
• Myoban: acidic sulfur springs, a thatched hut that gives off steam, and mud baths.

The hells

The site says steam, hot mud and hot water have gushed out in the Kannawa and Kamegawa areas for more than a thousand years. People once avoided the land and called it "hell." Today the site lists them as tourist attractions, and its feature page names seven.

It says the hells show different colors, such as red, blue or white, depending on what the water contains. Its examples are these.

• Umi Jigoku, a cobalt blue pool that it says is a nationally designated place of scenic beauty.
• Oniishibozu Jigoku, where bubbles of boiling mud look like a shaved head.
• Kamado Jigoku, a group of several hells from 1-chome to 6-chome.
• Oniyama Jigoku, which it calls the crocodile hell and says was the first facility in Japan to raise crocodiles with hot spring heat.
• Shiraike Jigoku, a pond whose color turns white or bluish, also a designated place of scenic beauty.
• Chinoike Jigoku, which it calls the oldest natural hell in Japan, with a red color and a history of more than 1,300 years.
• Tatsumaki Jigoku, a geyser that it says erupts every thirty to forty minutes.

The page says the tour is roughly divided into two areas that can each be visited on foot, and that going around all at once takes about two hours. It suggests visiting five hells in the morning, lunch in Kannawa, and then Chinoike and Tatsumaki by bus. It says the bus takes less than ten minutes.

Jigokumushi: food steamed by the earth

The tourism site describes jigokumushi as cooking by steam from a hot spring, and also as the food cooked that way. Ingredients go into a kettle with a lid, and you take them out at the right time. It says seafood, meat, vegetables, potatoes and eggs can all be steamed, and that there are no rules about what to cook.

It says the steam is hot enough to cook quickly and that the flavor becomes concentrated. It says there are places in Kannawa where you buy ingredients and cook them yourself, and places where you buy them on the spot. It also says some long-stay inns, which it calls toji inns, have kettles for guests. Ask staff how the system works before you start.

Getting around the hells

The site also mentions a regular sightseeing bus tour of the hells that it says began in 1928. It describes a pass that bundles entry to seventeen facilities by QR code. We did not read the fares or the timetable for either, so we give none. Use the operators' own pages.

What we could not verify, and therefore left out

• Entry fees and opening days for the hells, apart from the tourism site's general statement that the tour is open seven days a week.
• Prices of jigokumushi, and which places take bookings.
• Safety conditions around the hot water and steam, which staff on site can explain.
• The "number one in Japan" statements, which come from the tourism site and not from our own check.

Related guides

• How do you get to Beppu from Oita Airport and by train?
• What are the hot spring rules in Beppu, and what is Takegawara Onsen?

Sources

All URLs retrieved 2026-10-04.

1. Beppu Onsen tourism and travel information site Beppu Tabi (English) — (the eight areas and the hells)
2. Jigoku Meguri Features (Beppu City Official Tourism Site) — (the seven hells and the tour)
3. Eating Onsen "Jigokumushi" (Beppu City Official Tourism Site) — (steamed food)