Hot Sand Bath!

The "Ibutama" Limited Express

Today, after breakfast at the house, we headed to Ibusuki - right down in the far south of Kyushu.  First we got the Sakura Shinkansen to Kagoshima and then another funky special limited express, the Ibusuki No Tamatebako (or Ibutama for short)  This was another black and white train: the black side facing the mountains and the white side facing the sea.  Another great train - with sofas, seats facing the sea, lots of wood, very splendid Dorises etc etc.  As has become the norm now, we got our stamp for the scrapbook, photo of Tom with a Doris, and enjoyed the trip.  The train was a bit of a bone shaker, but it didn't matter.  We had picked up some Eki Bentos in Kagoshima, so settled down in the best seats in the carriage to eat them up, we then enjoyed the trip which hugged the coast along to Ibusuki.  Shame it was so hazy, we could hardly see anything in the sea, which is a shame as there is a massive volcano (Sakurajima) just a mile or two off shore which is a classic volcano shape.

Lunch on board

We got to Ibusuki around 12.45 and then walked the mile or so to the sand bath.  This place is famous for its sand bath and the train was full, but the town was a complete ghost town, no shops or restaurants were open, it felt like the place had been deserted, tumble weed would not have been out of place here.  We thought we would be on our own when we got to the sand bath, but there were others there.   We got our towels and yukatas and headed into the changing rooms.  We put on our yukatas and then headed down to the beach.

Here were were directed to a pit of sand where we lay down in our yukatas, a towel put around our heads, and then lots of hot sand laid on top of us.  A hot spring comes up on the beach meaning that the sand is hot.  We were buried up to our necks with hot, heavy, wet sand.  It felt really good, although I had about 6 pulses going off around my body: in my feet, my wrists, my chest etc.  I'm hoping the heat has hard boiled my troublesome cysts!!!!!!!  They suggest that you stay there for 10 minutes.

Enjoying the luxury

We were slightly worried that Tom wouldn't be up for it / be able to lie still etc, but of course this is Japan, and anything Japanese is good with him.  He lay still for the 10 minutes, and said he really enjoyed it.  Good on him.  I did a little longer and Matt a little longer too.  We then headed back up to the baths, for a shower and onsen. Tom as usual got 'kawaii' from some old ladies and I was able to tell them I came from Igirisu.  As seems to the norm this holiday, we were the only Europeans around but there were plenty of Chinese.  I'm beginning to not like the Chinese, find them a bit like the Italians: very pushy with no manners!  At least being European,

Getting the steam treatment

I am bigger than them so can use that to my advantage when they get really annoying!  Anyway when we came out of the sand bath they were queuing up to be dug in, and when we got back to the onsen they were queuing up to pay, so we were feeling quite smug!

Doris Ibusuki

We met up with Matt in the reception area, we all had a very welcome cold drink each (all 3 of us were looking pink), had a look around the souvenir shops, didn't buy anything because as usual the souvenir shops are full of things that have no interest for us, and then walked along the shore back to the station.  Oh today it was lovely and warm - just below 20 degrees - were were all in shorts.

We then got our nice Express train back to Kagoshima, and then after a quick visit to Krispy Kreme to pick up some afternoon donuts we got the Sakura back to Hakata.  Then a quick dash to Daiso to pick up some screwdrivers and batteries for Tom's new train and dinner upstairs: yakitori tonight (meat on sticks) very nice too, but unusually bad service!!!!

Anyway, a good day and Tom now loves sand baths (not sure how many more of those he will have in his life?!)