I visit Ibusuki for the day. It is an easy 1-hour train ride from Kagoshima. Ibusuki is a popular seaside town for locals, not so much for the beaches because they are flat and the sand is black volcanic residue, but for the food and hot springs. As well as the hot spas, you can enjoy a sand bath here. These sand baths are popular. The brochures talk of serious therapeutic effects from the naturally heated sands. It claims to clean your blood. You strip off like for an ensen (or hot spa), then wrap yourself in a kimono. You then take yourself down to the waters edge where under a cover is a series of prepared sand beds. The sand has been heated directly by hot water from the local volcano. Attendants dig a bit of a hole, you lie down and they cover you. The weight of the sand is terrifying at first. It’s hard to breath and you feel like you’re being buried alive. It’s comfortably warm for a while then after 10 minutes, it’s enough. That’s all I could bear. You sweat like in a sauna. You drag yourself out then go indoors for a hot spa and bath. I enjoyed the experience.
The train gets me back to Kagoshima around 4.30pm. I had the hotel do my laundry today and It returns with every item individually wrapped in plastic!
angusmccoll 