Japan
Oita
Located in the northeast of Kyushu, Oita borders Ehime, with the Hoyo Strait and the Bungo Channel in between, on the east and Yamaguchi across the Sea of Suho on the earth. To the north is a lava plateau, where you can enjoy the dynamic beauty of the Yaba-kei Valley and other ravines with mural precipices and numberless rocks and stones of fantastic shape eroded by rivers running between mountains.

The vast volcanic area that occupies a greater portion of the prefectural territory boasts the abundance of hot springs. There you can take a tour of eight boiling headsprings called "hell." On top of that, many hot springs are waiting for you, such as the spa of Beppu-onsen boasting the largest output of hot spring water and the Yufuin-onsen hot-spring known for music and film festivals held in summer, which are visited by many tourists from all over the country.

The Kunisaki-hanto Peninsula, whose cape makes out to the Seto Naikai ("the Inland Sea of Japan") between the Sea of Suho and the Sea of Iyo, is known for many Buddhist monuments that tell you of the prosperity that the Buddhist culture had enjoyed there in old times.

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These monuments, such as the Kumano-Magaibutsu ("Buddhist statues scalptured on the rock face"), the Aono-domon ("Blue Tunnel") made through rocks, and the Usuki Sekibutsu-gun, the largest collection of Buddhist stone images in Japan, have earned the place the name of "Nara of the west" and attract many interested people all the year round.

Getting There
About 1 hour and 40 minutes to Oita airport from Tokyo Haneda Airport; about 1 hour from Osaka Itami Airport. About 55 minutes from Oita Airport to Oita Station by bus.

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