Hotel Crystal Plaza

Right across from Katsuta station, with lots of restaurants nearby, and you can park there too. Booking by phone lets you use the frequent customer card, which gives you one free night for every 10 nights. There’s no breakfast room, but they can deliver breakfast to your room. It’s an ageing hotel, though the rooms have been nicely renovated. Singles and regular doubles are business-hotel standard, while the twin and premium double rooms are a great deal and have plenty of space.

I stayed for a week and had a good time. For a decent network connection, though, you need to bring your own router or a Wi-Fi repeater like the one in my picture.

The day-use bath costs 500 yen and has a medium-sized indoor pool, a cold bath, and a sauna with room for four across two levels. I like that the sauna and cold bath temperatures feel just right, not too hot or too cold. The drawback is the tattoo ban, which seems to be ignored completely. I see people with tattoos every time. It doesn’t actually cause any harm, but it does make me wonder what the rule means for the facility.

The hotel is old, and it doesn’t seem to have been cleaned or repaired well to make up for that. The rooms are small, too. To reach reception on the second floor from the basement, you have to use a narrow escalator and stairs, so be especially careful with luggage or a carry-on. The elevator button for the first floor says “employees only,” so guests apparently can’t use it, though I’m not sure if the building layout makes that unavoidable. On one of my two nights, a strong sulfur smell came down the hallway and woke me up. One front desk employee couldn’t use honorific language properly. I left feeling that the hotel was coasting on its past reputation and didn’t have much of a hospitality mindset.