Jigoku-mushi: steam your lunch
1 / 5Jigoku-mushi: steam your lunchPhoto: 松岡明芳 / CC BY-SA 4.0
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Checked against official sources · updated · Takumi Yamada
Rent a steam vent, lower your basket of seafood and vegetables into the earth, eat what the volcano cooked. Interactive, cheap, unforgettable — the Kannawa kobo runs it 10:00–19:00 (last basket order 18:00) and closes on the third Wednesday of each month.
- Our number 2 for Beppu, out of ten. It is the first thing we would spend the hours on.
- On a 4–6h ashore call our verdict is "The anchor" — kannawa, then myoban up the hill or takegawara down at the shore.
- It is not only a photo stop: more hot water comes out of this town than anywhere in japan, and second place is not close.
- Steam kitchen 10:00–19:00 — last order 18:00; closed 3rd wednesday.
- 4 hr door to door needs a 6-hour call: a 2–3 hour stop cannot hold it. Pick something closer instead.
- No single published ride covers this one. Budget for a taxi both ways, or fold it into a guided day.
Why Jigoku-mushi: steam your lunch is famous
More hot water comes out of this town than anywhere in Japan, and second place is not close
Jigoku-mushi is cooking with steam straight from the ground, a Kannawa habit that predates gas. You buy a basket of seafood, eggs and vegetables, put it in a stone box over a vent, and wait the posted number of minutes. The salt and minerals in the steam season the food.
Beppu has around 2,200 hot spring vents and discharges more hot water than any other town in Japan — a volume second in the world only to Yellowstone. Steam comes out of drains, gardens and the gaps between houses, and the local word for the seven most violent springs is "hells."
Kannawa is the district where Beppu's steam is thickest — it comes out of drains, gardens and the gaps between houses, and on a cold morning the whole neighbourhood disappears into it. This is the yukemuri view that is a designated national scenic asset.
At the Jigoku Mushi Kobo you buy raw ingredients, load a woven basket, and lower it into a stone steam chamber. Ten to twenty minutes depending on what you chose. The steam is around 100°C and slightly salty, so it seasons as it cooks — households here have done this for centuries and some kitchens still have their own steam box.
As a hazard to be avoided, not a sight
Straw beds under thatched huts, still done that way
The sand bath, in a wooden building rebuilt 1938
Beppu becomes a national tourist town
Steam-cook your own lunch at Kannawa, then a sand bath at Takegawara. The hells are optional; these are not.
Three places, three different answers
The one the queue agrees on, the one people who live here use instead, and the one nearest your ship. Opening days change; check before you build a day around one.
Buy a basket, put it in a stone box over a steam vent, wait the posted minutes. The minerals in the steam do the seasoning.
Open in Google MapsClosest to the berthKannawa steam lanes鉄輪温泉Steam comes out of the drains all over this district; several inns will let you cook in theirs.
Open in Google MapsThings worth knowing
- Eggs, corn and sweet potato are the reliable choices. Prawns are the good one.
- Wear something you do not mind smelling faintly of sulphur for the rest of the day.
- Free and near-free foot baths are scattered through the lanes. Bring a small towel.
- Cold mornings make the steam dramatic. November is the photograph.
- Jigoku地獄 — Hell. A spring too hot and too aggressive to bathe in.
- Yunohana湯の花 — Mineral crystals grown on straw over months. Take a bag home.
Jigoku-mushi: steam your lunch and your ship
Both pins on one map, so the distance is a fact rather than a feeling.
Questions people send us
How does the Kannawa steam kitchen work?
You buy raw ingredients — prawns, eggs, corn, sweet potato, vegetables — load them into a woven basket and lower it into a stone geothermal chamber for ten to twenty minutes. The steam runs at around 100°C and is slightly salty, so it seasons the food as it cooks and very little needs adding.
Is Kannawa better than the Beppu hells?
For most short calls, yes. The hells circuit costs ¥2,400 and takes two and a half hours to look at water you cannot touch. Kannawa is free to walk, has scattered foot baths, and lets you cook your own lunch in the ground — it is closer to how the town actually works.
Routes that already include it
Each one is a finished day timed from the official timetables, with this stop in it. Read the route rather than assembling it yourself.
What to put beside it
Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare.
See · ~4h circuitThe Hells of Kannawa
Cobalt ponds, blood-red pools, a geyser on a timer — seven volcanic "hells" you view, not bathe in.
See the detail
Do · ~3hA sand bath, buried to the neck
Attendants shovel volcanically heated sand over you until only your face is left thinking.
See the detail
See · ~2.5h with downtownTakegawara bathhouse
The 1879 grand dame of public baths under a temple-grade roof — entry costs pocket change and the wooden lobby alone is worth the trip.
See the detail