travel – Norms & Weirdos

Japan is a heaven for hot spring (onsen) lovers. Sadly for people with weak hearts (me), can’t keep your breast under water for long even when you are naked.

What if… there’s an onsen that you don’t need to get boiled?

Ibusuki ( 指宿 )

The onsen is at Ibusuki, the southest part of Kyushu.

It is famous of onsen so there are lots of facilities. But the one I went to, cannot be compared.

Healthy Land bath facilities

Healthy Land consists of 2 main baths – Open Air Bath and Sand Bath.

Open Air Bath has 2 main areas, western style pool facing the ocean and japanese style pool facing the mountain. You can visit only 1 area each time, woman can visit the western one on even number dates, vice versa.

Check out the website for more

Sand Bath

It takes 5-10 mins along the shore from the Open Air Bath. You can see many steam punk-ish machines on the way.

Go downstairs when you see the green tents. Pay your money, take off all your clothes and change to Yukata. Remember to go out with a towel!

The staff will guide you to lie down and put kilos of hot sand on you.
DO NOT TAKE OFF YOUR YUKATA!

The towel is for protecting your head and hair, where your whole body including hands and legs, is under the heavy sand dune. The staff will put an umbrella to shade your face. Pictures are welcomed as everyone has clothes on, put your cam inside the basket and the staff will take tons for you.

I couldn’t stand the weight for long, but it’s embarrassing to shout out for help… normally they will wait for 15 mins before waking you. I slowly shake off the sand, took me a few mins till I could get up. So if you are with kids, make sure they don’t feel uncomfortable.

Phenomenal.
Relaxing with sea waves, under this magical golden sunset.

It’s time to go when you see the sunset. You gotta have a shower to wash away all the sand.

Healthy Land closes at around 6 and there are not much lights nearby the bus stop. I can’t see any taxis, really recommend ppl to leave earlier.

Access

If you go from Kagoshima (鹿児島), take the special express train Isubuki no Tamatebako (指宿の玉手箱) which you can reserve seats having panoramic sea view and receive a special postcard. Or take the Nanohana (means vegetable flower) which takes more time but more trains.

You can interchange for bus at Ibusuki station or Yamakawa station.

There was English announcement on bus, wait for “Healthy Land” bus stop. Gotta walk a bit till you get to the baths.
Pick the set ticket for both sand and open air baths (1240 yen), you can bring your towel to save some money as well.

I don’t see any other places in Japan have sand baths. And the best thing is, there are not many tourists!
Go before it becomes famous 🙂

In New Zealand, where every view can blow your mind, maybe we should focus on accessibility.

There are trains but mainly for cargoes, not reaching those tourist spots. So basically you gotta rent a car, take tours or pick wise.

Wanaka

about 1 hour drive from Queenstown, is a cozy little town by Lake Wanaka. Here, you can stay at YHA right in the town center at a reasonable price (comparing to Queenstown), getting a little cabin as for twin room and having a lobby facing the lake.

*– Windy shore with gulls flying backwards*

From there, you can reach a famous ‘instagram spot’ in 20 min walk or 5 min drive.

So it’s a tree. And a lot of tourists. Doesn’t seem to be special with my #nofilter version though.

Roy’s Peak

5 min drive from the tree, you can see “Roy’s Peak Track Parking”. Remember to grab the last toilet chance near parking!

*– Town center from the track (top right of the lake)*

The whole track is an easy gentle slope, 2-3 hours to the lookout, plus 20 min to the peak. I gave up the peak as the sun is getting down, and pics taken on the summit is not that appealing without the drone. Bring a jacket or maybe raincoat in case.

Sheep keeps staring at me for the first 3 sec then runs away. There are fences and ladders (just a few steps) to cross over gates, as the whole mountain is a huge breeding ground for the sheep.

There are mainly 2 concerns for this walk – weather and tracking. It’s a huge zig-zag across the range, sometimes there are showers, sometimes it’s freezing in the shadow, sometimes I’m dried out by the wind.

There are no signs on the whole walk. I’ve been asked for nearly 10 times whether this is the right way, and there are people giving up coz they have no idea where they are heading. The zig-zag is blocking the goal, you can’t really see the summit from the bottom, and there are fences that you’re not sure if you can cross.

Follow the footsteps, and try to stay on the main route.

You can’t see the lookout until you reach it, I was thinking of give up and head down a few sec before. There is a narrow path to get out and take the instagram pic, but you may have to wait for a few minutes. There are people taking wedding pics, people who climb out coz of the height and wind (me)… people tend to wait at the wider middle as only 1-2 can stand at the edge on the same time.

– what I see on the edge

It’s not that safe, to be honest. It was so windy that I (>50 kg) can merely stand. Take care of your children and avoid stupid camera postures. Spare some time coz you have to get down from the same route.

It’s not an OMG! view, but totally worth it as for an easy 2-hour-walk 5 min drive from town.

Tag: travel

[Japan] Hot springs are even better WITHOUT WATER