Kusatsu Onsen Sen

I loved the Onsen!

We picked this hotel for a family hot spring trip with our kids because it has three kinds of private baths and seemed reasonably priced. You get to the baths by going downstairs from the second floor, beside the parking lot. In order they're ceramic, cypress, then rock. There's a wooden sign inside the second-floor door. Take it with you when you go in. If there's no sign, someone's using that bath. Since it was a weekday, we got to try all three. Kusatsu Onsen's water is really hot, though, so we had to keep stirring it for quite a while before we could get in. The rock bath was especially hard to enjoy, with the bath itself too cold and the water too hot. The water quality was excellent, but it was a shame we couldn't relax. I think the cypress bath was probably the best. The hotel is a three-story building with no elevator, but our room was spacious, clean, and convenient. The staff were kind and polite, and parking before and after check-in was convenient too. It's under a 10-minute walk from the Yubatake hot springs.

The morning kamameshi was just right, and the rock bath is for people who like the natural heat of the water and don't mind stirring it to adjust the temperature. The other two baths can be made comfortable by letting some water out, so it might be easier to drain them first, then wash your hair and body before getting in. The hotel is a little walk from Yubatake, which means it's quieter there, but there's a steep slope on the way, so people with weak legs should take care.

The beds and private hot springs are great, and I came back again in the spring. Breakfast's kamameshi rice bowl is great too, and I'd like to stay several nights next time. It's a little far from the bus terminal, with no shuttle service, so getting back during the snowstorm was difficult. There's Wi-Fi, and it's a good place for a hot spring cure.