Ibusuki Sand Baths

Hot spring water rises through the ground at Surigahama beach in Ibusuki and heats the sand above it, and the practice of lying in that sand goes back around three hundred years locally. You change into a yukata, walk out onto the beach, lie down in a shallow trench, and attendants shovel sand over you up to the neck - about fifty to sixty degrees at the surface you are lying in, with the weight of the sand adding pressure. Ten to fifteen minutes is the recommended limit and most people find that enough; sweating is immediate and heavy. Afterwards the sand is rinsed off and there is an ordinary indoor bath. It is claimed to help circulation, which is a matter for a doctor rather than a guidebook. The roofed section operates when tides or weather make the open beach unusable. Ibusuki also grows okra and sells sweet potato shochu.

What you actually see

• Buried in hot sand - shovelled over you up to the neck on the beach.
• Geothermally heated ground - hot spring water rising under Surigahama.
• A ten-minute limit - the recommended maximum, and enough for most people.
• A three-hundred-year practice - local bathing recorded here since the eighteenth century.

When to go

All year; the tide governs whether the open beach or the roofed area is used. Two hours.

Honest expectations

It is genuinely hot and heavy and some people find it claustrophobic. Health claims made for it are not something to act on without a doctor. Queues form on holidays. The open beach is unavailable at high tide and in bad weather.

Nearby

Mount Kaimon is west; Lake Ikeda is north-west.