Myoban Onsen Okamoto-ya

Myoban Onsen Okamoto-ya is a ryokan in the distinctive Myoban hot spring district of Beppu City, Oita Prefecture, whose name means alum spring, referring to the unique phenomenon of aluminum sulfate mineral deposits that crystallize around the spring vents and are gathered by local artisans into the famous Myoban bath salts sold as Beppu's most distinctive souvenir, a therapeutic product made nowhere else in Japan from the sulfurous alum minerals precipitated by the spring water as it contacts the open air. Beppu itself is Japan's most prolific hot spring city, producing the largest volume of geothermal water of any spa in Japan at over 83,000 kiloliters per day from dozens of distinct spring types distributed across eight distinct spa zones, and the Beppu Jigoku — eight dramatically colored and violently bubbling hell springs including the brilliant cobalt-blue Umi Jigoku (sea hell) and the blood-red Chi no Ike Jigoku (blood pond hell) — represent one of Japan's most vivid and spectacular geological spectacles. The sulfurous alum waters of Okamoto-ya's baths offer a uniquely Myoban bathing experience in milky, mineral-laden water that leaves the skin wrapped in the distinctive alum residue prized in Japanese therapeutic bathing tradition for its antibacterial and skin-tightening properties.