Dormy Inn Kawasaki Natural Hot Spring

There are lots of restaurants within walking distance of Kikue Kawasaki Station or JR Kawasaki Station, and a 7/11 right by the entrance and reception. The 15th floor has a full onsen or hot spring, with free ice cream and massage chairs. You also get a free welcome drink from 15:00, plus bottled water and banana cake in the room. Great location.

After a relaxing soak, you can get drinks and popsicles, and there’s a coin machine for other drinks and alcohol. The hot springs were very relaxing. I was happy with the daily room service, and it was nice to come back to a clean, tidy room. Breakfast tasted good, though after nearly a week I started to find it repetitive. The restaurant staff were attentive and gave excellent service. The room smelled of smoke at first, and since the inn was full we couldn’t switch rooms. Using the deodorizing items provided, the air conditioning, and opening the windows helped a lot. It’s about a ten-minute walk from the station. This was my first Japanese hot spring inn, and it met most of my needs. A very nice place for a first visit.

We’d loved our previous stay at a Dormy Inn in Kyoto, so we expected a similar experience here, but it didn’t quite deliver. The hard beds and pillows made the stay really uncomfortable, like sleeping on rocks, and that alone takes two stars off for me. If you can put up with them, it’s a decent place to stay. There’s a lot to do just steps away in this busy part of Kawasaki. Our room was a decent size, with enough room to move around, and the laundry room was inexpensive. The manga library is cool if you can read Japanese. The station is about a ten-minute walk, though it’s very confusing. You can see Mt. Fuji from the top floor, and they offer free yogurt drinks in the morning and ice cream bars at night. A 7-11 is attached to the hotel lobby. The onsen has just two hot springs, a cold bath, and a sauna, so it feels small. When it’s busy, it gets packed and is hard to enjoy. The microwaves are in the smoking areas, which makes using them unpleasant, and there’s no water dispenser anywhere. The top floor gets excessively hot, even in December. The four elevators are painfully slow and crowded when the hotel is busy, and getting back to your room can take 15 minutes.

The onsen is roomy and really nice, even compared with other onsen hotels I’ve stayed at, which is impressive this close to Tokyo. Breakfast is worth the extra cost on a longer stay, with much better food than most hotel buffets. Otherwise, the complimentary yogurt drinks, ice cream, and ramen can easily make up for a meal you’d have to find elsewhere. I keep staying here whenever I can. Prices have gone up as demand has increased, but I still think it’s worth the money. The rooms are immaculate. There’s no smart TV, which doesn’t bother me. My one complaint is that they recently closed the towel receptacle in the changing room. It seems like a cost-cutting move, leaves a strange amount of wasted locker space, and means I have to carry a wet towel back to my room. If they reverse that decision, I’d give the place a perfect score.