It was a remarkable experience for me and my friends to try the sand hot spring for the first time.

As we know, Japan is well-known for onsen (Hot spring) as the country has many active volcanos. Unlike other prefectures in Kyushu Island, onsen in Kagoshima prefecture is unique and different, where vistors do not deep themselves into hot water. Instead of, people are burried with valcanically heated black sand. This is called as sand onsen or in Japanese it is called as Sunamushi (砂むし).
Last spring a group of seven Malaysians, including myself visited Kagoshima prefecture. We took this opputunity to try the Kagoshima famous sand onsen. From Kagoshima–Chuo station, we took the rapid train (approximately 50min) to a town called Ibusuki, where the sand onsen is located.

Besides rapid train, tourist can also take the normal train which take around 75minutes to reach Ibusuki Town and it cost you around 1000yen for one way. From the Ibusuki train station, you can walk towards the beach (approximately 15minutes), where the hotspring is located.

The whole stretch of the seashore is the sand onsen. We could see smoke arise from the beach sand, and could feel the heat.

Tents were built to avoid sunburn for the visitors. There is a building next to the tents, were you could change your cloths and shoes. Unlike the normal onsen, visitors do not need to take shower before entering the onsen. The workers in the onsen will dig a shallow hole and you have to lay inside the hole. The workers will help you to cover your body with the hot sand up to your neck level. You can stay there for approximately 10 to 15 minutes, depending on your heat resistant capacity. After few minutes burried under the hot sand, you can feel your body are getting hot and start to sweat.

The beach sand is coarse and therefore it is better not to move your body to avoid getting injured. It is believed and proved that sand onsen is good for your blood. Many or almost all hotels in Ibusuki area equipped with sand onsen facility and most of them are indoor. In those hotels, you can find an article about the benefit of sand onsen, including the picture of blood before and after taking sand onsen.

Its nice to have something colder after taking the hot sand onsen… for example Kagoshima special “Shirokuma”…..