Chikugogawa Onsen Kiyonoya

Just ordinary.

A relaxing stay, with good food and good service.

This was another visit, and I hope to keep coming back to Chikugogawa Onsen. The rooms are clean, with a calming view of the Chikugo River that gives the stay a real getaway feel. The hot spring water is slightly thick and leaves the skin moisturized. It’s also drinkable, which is fantastic. The family bath is available at a very reasonable price and is well worth trying. Both meals are carefully prepared and healthy. I would have liked a little more meat at dinner. The elementary school children enjoyed their hamburgers and fried chicken at dinner, but breakfast was the same Japanese side dishes as the adults. A simpler breakfast for children would have been better.

I’d had a great stay here before, so I stopped by to use the large public bath. As I was about to enter the women’s bath, a man saw me and came out, saying he’d gone in by mistake. No staff were nearby, so I went in quickly, but the incident felt a little scary. I had also left an item behind that day. When I came back the next day to collect it and told a male staff member, he gave me a dirty look. I don’t know why the man entered the wrong bath, but the large public bath is in the basement, and security may not be as good there. If that worries you, I think a private bath would be safer, even though it costs more. I hope this information is useful.