Even here though, the American president has made his mark; a sign welcoming visitors to the baths shows Obama soaking next to a woman whose face is cut out, so that tourists can put their own in for a photo. When the bathers need to dry off, vendors in town will be happy to sell them Obama-themed towels.

Just up the road from the hot baths, visitors can see the source of the steamy water in the nearby Geopark. The ground boils and bubbles, and the powerful smell of sulfur is thick in the air. It isn’t hard to imagine how this place earned its own strange nickname — hell.

Today, many tourists find this moniker amusing, but Masahisa Sasaki, who works in the park as a guide, says the name is no joke. He explains that Christianity was forbidden in Nagasaki for many years, and Christians were killed on this site for refusing to abandon their faith. For them, he says, it became a real hell.