Currently travelling Kyushu and chose Beppu to go to for my 21st birthday. It’s been amazing so far I absolutely love onsens they completely de-stress me.
Besides that has anyone else visited the 7 hells of Beppu and thought the crocodile hell was a bit crazy. Like I’ve previously read that Japan is a bit terrible with animal rights and I’m not usually one to complain but it was absolutely wild. Half of the crocodiles had big open wounds, they were stuffed into tiny, empty cages with a tiny bit of water and no shade. Half of them genuinely looked dead, I thought one of the cages was just a mass grave or something.
Don’t think I’d recommend this spot for tourists maybe just grab the stamp and leave.
by ThrowAway82773738292
14 comments
Please let me know the name of this one. I am going to Beppu next month and I want to avoid it like the plague. The irony of me working in Ueno Park today and advising against Zoo experience in Japan and now I read this before bed.
Edit: I assume the name is crocodile hell and now I feel stupid. I shall go to bed and hope my lousy brain cells can retain this information.
Japan has terrible Animal rights.
I’ve always wanted to go to Beppu and I’ve never heard of this one.
I looked up some images and I immediately clocked that there were also.. Alligators? As a native Floridian that’s just.. concerning. Alligators and Crocodiles can’t really co-exist. The only true place they co-exist is the Florida Everglades. They have plenty of space, perfect temps, and food sources. Japans shitty tiny cages are not that. No wonder why they have open wounds. They probably fight a lot.
I was just there yesterday. The crocodile one was sad
Was there last year, didn’t see any with open wounds as you said but yeh the conditions a lot of animals are kept in aren’t great.
Shame you missed the elephant shackled to a post and the hippo in a muddy pit (both died a few years back).
If you’re in Beppu you should go to the monkey sanctuary – Takasakiyama Natural Zoological Garden
高崎山自然動物園. It was amazing. The monkeys run free and you’re on their turf.
You can tell a lot about people based on how they treat animals.
Totally agree, we had the full 7 pass but knew in advance that the conditions were awful in there fit the poor animals so didn’t spend any time in that one. I wasn’t a huge fan of the fish either because of the conditions and obvious medical issues like fungal infections they had that could have been easily treated. I have fishtanks and it was a bit infuriating to see easily fixable problems just left abandoned.
The other 5 hells are incredible natural beauty spots. Not sure why they felt the need to add 2 more man made ones unnecessarily
What was your favorite onsen so far?
Sadly, this is a typical animal experience in Japan.
Fox Village? Open wounds. (They even sell Fox fur goods in the gift shop.)
Noboribetsu Bear Park? Small depressing concrete pits.
Kyoto Zoo? Distressed tiger pacing back and forth inside tiny cage.
Even the Ueno Zoo, which is Japan’s premiere zoo, gets people in here talking about how shocked they were when they went.
Yep. I hadn’t read about all of the hells in depth because I wanted to be surprised but if I had known beforehand I would have skipped it. Really depressing place.
Oh avoid anything to do with animals in Japan. It’s truly awful. They do not have the same concept of animal rights as North Americans do. Zoos, parks, cafes. None of it. The only one that is fine is the monkey park in Kyoto. It’s just wild monkeys, and the park is just a spot for them to feed. The park is basically a restaurant for them. Even the deer on Miyajima look sick and sad.
Go to Dogo onsen!
I went to the 7 Hells of Beppu and the whole experience was disappointing. Having been to places like Waitapu in Rotorua New Zealand, which are just geologically incredible, Hells of Beppu feels like a 1/10 experience.
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