Introducing Beppu

Understanding the working spa town of Beppu is in some ways to understand Japan. Quaint yet crowded, traditional and modern, Beppu remains what it always has been: a place to which people escape. For some that’s hedonistic fun in the pleasure district, for others it’s relaxing soaks in one of hundreds of baths. The recent arrival in 2000 of Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in the foothills north of town has brought a welcome influx of both Japanese and international students to Beppu.