Unzen Onsen (雲仙温泉)

Unzen Onsen (雲仙温泉) is a hot spring resort town near the peak of Mount Unzen. Not too far from Nagasaki, the area originally developed as a temple town that in its prime was large enough to be compared to Koyasan. In the Meiji Period, the town became one of Japan's first tourist resorts popular among foreigners, and a hint of Western influenced architecture can still be seen about town. Unzen Onsen's location makes it a good base from which to explore Mount Unzen.

The resort is surrounded on several sides by hot spring fields. Also known as hells (jigoku), these barren rocky areas are littered with billowing steam vents and gushing hot springs from which milky, acidic and sulfurous water bubbles straight up out of the ground. The hells were once used to execute Christian rebels after the failed Shimabara Rebellion, but today its spring water has the more pleasant task of warming up holidaymakers in the ryokan baths around town.

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