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Unzen-Amakusa NP, Nagasaki
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The Annex’s historic photo display recalls a remarkably international resort: in 1927, foreign visitors to Unzen topped 20,000, and guests included Helen Keller, Chiang Kai-shek and poet Rabindranath Tagore.
Unzen’s hot-spring cracker, yusenpei, was first trial-produced in 1891. Local makers still use hot-spring water in the dough—a tasty link between the town’s springs and its everyday food culture.
In 1878, Unzen’s new-spring district introduced a one-person “foreigners’ bath”: a box-shaped tub that let guests avoid mixed bathing. The local history records that foreign visitors increased.
The Annex’s old photographs show an early-20th-century resort with golf, tennis and even a newspaper for visitors. Unzen’s golf course opened in 1913 as a 9-hole public course.
Unzen had a visitor center before this one: the 1981 Unzen Park Visitor Center is now the history-focused Annex, while the main Unzen Visitor Center opened in 2004.
The center’s “Volcano and Hot Spring Science” display connects Unzen’s steaming vents to its baths: hot volcanic gases heat groundwater, helping create the local hot springs.
The visitor center also works as a nature classroom: a local profile describes monthly hands-on programs and summer crafts that children could take home and use for school assignments.
