Takamatsu to Beppu!

So by now, its actually January, and I've already been home for over a MONTH!  Its crazy.  Anyways, I decided I needed to finish out this blog here, so I'm making some posts with pictures from the last few cities I traveled to during my time in Japan.  After Matsuyama on the southern island of Shikoku, I took a ferry to the town of Beppu on the eastern side of Kyushu, the southernmost of the "main islands". 

Beppu is best known as one of the biggest hot spring-onsen towns in Japan with literally hundreds of bath houses.  Also, it's been historically known as a "Las Vegas" of Japan, not because of gambling, but because of a huge sex industry there.  They have also been working hard to clean up their image though and I only knew this fact from reading it online.  Beppu also has the only "Sex Museum" I came across in Japan, which was interesting, in a weird, zany sort of way.

One of the onsen I went to, that was VERY hot.  I remember trying to get into jacuzzis on occasion when I was younger, and they were just tooo hot to even get into, but I think I've now developed a taste/feel for  nice, very hot, baths.

One of the sights in Beppu are the hotspring "Hells" that are too hot for bathing and have unusual colors or characteristics, and have been turned into sort of amusement attractions. 

At this one they boil eggs in the mineral rich water for people to buy and eat.  There were also ones where the water is a deep dark red, or were bubbling mud pools, or were milky white.

Inside the Sex Museum.  This is a display with erotic ukiyoe-woodblock prints, including foggy spots on the display case to "censor" the prints.  The museum was more like a showcase of various sex-related things from over the world, including a big display case of erotic ceramic saucers and such, and a display case with replica animal parts.

Also, various "Hindu" figurines.  Overall, it was an interesting, if not wacky and different, place to go. 

Also, I saw a guy walking his cat!