Saraku Sand Bath Hall — Attraction in Ibusuki

Really a full package experience. At ¥1500, it's a bit more expensive than your average onsen, but it's well worth the cost. Bring your own bath towel for the onsen and face towel to wrap your hair in the sand bath, or rent for an additional fee. No photos, since it's a bath. All the workers speak at least a little English, so communication was not a problem for me. You will be provided with a yukata for the sand bath, and go outside. The beach is geothermally heated and too hot for bare feet, so they provide flip flops. The sand bath area is on the beach under a shelter, with rainbow umbrellas if you want to further shade your face. Workers dig out a little sand bed and pillow for you to lie in, wrap your head, and bury you. The sand is more like little black micro-pebbles, and very heavy, like a hot weighted blanket. The bath time is 10 minutes. When you're done with your sand bath, your journey continues in the onsen. There is a row of jet shower stalls for you to wash off the sand before entering the onsen, with about 20 nozzles surrounding you. The water is very hot though, so this part was a bit hard for me. The cold water fountain was a godsend. The actual onsen is very large, with a lot of shower stalls, but at 11am on a Tuesday there were only a couple of people. Big hotspring pool of slightly basic water, sauna, and cold bath. The cold bath made a huge difference for me, because I overheat easily so I usually can't spend more than 15 minutes inside before I unfortunately have to evacuate. Here, I could go back and forth between the sauna or hot bath and the cold bath, so I was able to enjoy myself for much longer. A word of warning for international travellers, this volcanic nation is made of some incredibly tough people, and the spa reflects that: while my previous experience with saunas in Canada averaged 50ish degrees, the thermometer in the sauna here read a blistering 82.9°C. To add insult to injury, there is a TV inside the sauna for people to pass the time, and indeed there were some old ladies doing just that, but I had to run out in about 2 minutes. Very effective, the sauna had me sweating a waterfall within 30 seconds. On the other end of the spectrum, the cold bath was no Nordic ice-bath. While certainly by no means balmy, the water was warm enough for me to fall asleep in once acclimated. This worked well for me because I'm...

［March 2014］ This seemed to be the only sand steam bath in Ibusuki. I was a bit surprised because I had expected a row of bathes along the shoreline like food stalls at festivals or beach houses.

I looked at the surf and saw steam in the air. It was record cold last night, but I wonder if that was the reason. Incidentally, a cab driver told me that until recently he had dug himself out of the sand on the beach and enjoyed a sand steam bath. Wild.

I made a reservation in the modern main building and waited for my turn to come. 30 minutes later, when I was called, I put on a thick Yukata and went out to the beach and waited for my turn again. I should have chosen the Inner Set, which included rental underwear.

As mentioned earlier, it was relatively warm that day, so it wasn't much of a problem, but if it had been a cold day in the middle of winter, I would have been freezing cold while waiting.

It had been a long time since I'd been buried almost entirely in a hole dug by someone else, since playing on the beach in the summer as a child. At my age, it has a kind of black flavor to it.

Surprisingly, the sand was unexpectedly heavy, and also, everyone was out after about 10 minutes. I thought I had come all this way, but it was too hot to endure any longer. It was also a little disappointing that the sand bath was only available once.

As mentioned earlier, we wore nothing under our thick Yukata. After the sand steam bath, we washed off the sand and soaked in the hot water in the large bathhouse. During the sand bath, place a borrowed hand towel under your head like a hood. Prevent your hair from getting covered in sand. I was still wearing my glasses, but they got annoying me when I was buried in the sand.

I recommend this activity because it's not that expensive and it's like an event. You can take a day trip from Kagoshima Chuo Station by train. I think this will be a good memory of your trip and I expect it takes the stiffness out of...

I did the sand bath in mid-April in the afternoon. It was still chilly enough to enjoy and it felt amazing. Think of being in a warm bath while under a weighted blanket… it’s something like that. This is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of experience so it’s absolutely worth it to come!

What is it? It’s a thermal beach with steamy sand. The staff buries you in a mound of the sand. After 10 minutes you shower off and enter the public bath.

Was it easy? Yes. They had lots of signs available in English in case you don’t understand Japanese. Some staff speaks basic English too.

You go to reception, pay, grab your yukata and towels. Go to the locker room, put everything in a locker, change into the yukata, put on sandals and head down to the beach. There’s a roof covered section and an open section. Staff will tell you what number to go to, you go there and the staff guides you into the sand, being careful that your hair and face are protected. They then bury you in the sand with just your face exposed. Clocks are everywhere so you can track your 10-minute time. Once you’re finished you get up, shake off, and head to the shower. Get all the sand off and the route leads you to the bath. Bathe and then get dressed when you’re done. It’s pretty easy and well-guided with signs and understandable English.

Also the gift shop is lovely. I recommend the...