Audio tour · Japan
Beppu
A self guided audio tour of Beppu.
Downloadon the App Store
The app is on the App Store
A self guided audio tour of Beppu.
Beppu is a small city on the coast of Kyushu where the ground itself is alive, steam rising from vents and drains and the spaces between buildings. The onsen culture here runs deeper than tourism, woven into everyday life, and walking the older streets you sense that the heat beneath the earth has shaped the way people move and rest and gather.
In the app, 26 stops in Beppu are narrated aloud, about 44m of listening across 3 walking routes, in 13 languages, offline once downloaded. Choose a route or build your own, then walk while a calm voice tells you the story of each stop. The app also maps 17 Instagram photo spots, social media photo locations with directions to where you stand for the shot.
The opening lines of a few narrations, straight from the tour.
"You're standing here at the start of the Beppu Jigoku Meguri, the tour of the seven hells."
"You are standing in one of the great hot spring towns of Japan."
"You have arrived at the head shrine of Hachiman worship in Japan."
"You are looking out over one of Japan's oldest national parks, first set aside in 1934 and covering more than 700 square kilometers across Oita and Kumamoto prefectures in central Kyushu."
"You are standing on an almost perfectly round peninsula in northern Oita, a shape that comes from its volcanic past."
"You are at the ruins of Funai Castle, in the heart of Oita City and about a fifteen-minute walk from the station."
Curated orders through the city. Or build your own and press Play All.
From the famous Hells to the hilltop ropeway, this loop through Beppu's volcanic north takes in bubbling pools, a geothermal museum, and sweeping views over the bay.
A gentle wander through Beppu's historic centre, past century-old onsen halls and a bamboo craft workshop, finishing at the calm edge of Beppu Bay.
A short walk through Oita city's cultural core, connecting the feudal-era stones of Funai Castle with Oita's striking prefectural art museum and a sacred Shinto shrine.
Every stop is narrated. Walk them in any order, or follow a route. Open a category to see what is inside.