Student Blog

Beppu City, famous for its onsen (hot springs) celebrates “Onsen Thanksgiving Day” every April 1st, and holds the “Beppu Hatto Onsen Festival” (hereafter referred to as the Onsen Festival). During this time, the “Ogiyama Fire Festival” is held, where locals set dried grass aflame on Mt. Ogiyama, and there is a portable shrine paraded through the streets in front of Beppu Station. They also have the “Yubukake Festival” where you can enjoy having warm onsen water splashed on you. Every year, many APU students gather to enjoy all of the festivities.

This year, the Onsen Festival also celebrated the 100th anniversary of Beppu City's incorporation. The festival was held for one week, which is longer than usual.
I participated at the Kamegawa district venue on the sixth day of the Onsen Festival this year. The “Kamegawa Project,” which promotes interaction between APU students and the local community, ran part of the festival. I helped with the mochi-pounding stall. At the mochi-pounding stall, there are two types of mochi. First is red bean paste mochi packs, and the second is red bean paste and kinako mochi. We cooked the rice starting at 10 a.m. on the day, then pounded mochi by the stall and sold them. The process of pounding the mochi could be experienced by adults and children. We pounded them in 30-minute sessions. I mainly supported sales with three other members. We had to record how many sales we had for each product on a paper, but sometimes we forgot to record it. We sold around 90 for the first product (mochi packs) and around 1000 for the second product (red bean paste and kinako). The mochi received positive comments for being delicious, and some people even bought them twice.

There were other varieties of stalls, including takoyaki (octopus balls), cotton candy and fried bread. Fried breads were very popular, and it was still sold after the festival was over. There were also performances and many APU students participated.

It started to rain so the festival ended a little earlier than planned. The people who came to the Kamegawa said it was disappointing. Still, a lot of people came to the festival and enjoyed it, so I was happy as well.

My friends who also participated in the “Kamegawa Project” said it was fun. We also had a review meeting to help with our next activity. We also had a meeting for this time and talked about reflection. This is my first event with the “Kamegawa Project” and my first festival in Beppu. Everyone was so kind and it was fun.

I would like to participate in more Kamegawa Project events and hot spring festivals in the future.

XU LIJIA

Hello, I'm Lily Xu, a second-year student majoring in the College of International Management at APU. I come from China and actively participate in both the Huage Arts Club and the Basketball Club. Through SPA, I look forward to improving my writing skills and meeting people from diverse backgrounds. Thank you for your support.