Address: 1-4-25大路, Kusatsu City, Shiga Prefecture, Japan
Telephone: 077-562-0066
My experience: This pleasant and centrally located sento is quite sizeable for a small neighbourhood public bath. The tree covered entrance is located on a small sidestreet leading directly from the station. Inside the always smiling couple that runs the establishment will greet all visitors at the front desk.
Entering the dressingrooms through the automated sliding door brings no surprises. Tatami floors and wall lockers satisfy the expectation of a traditional public bath. The bathing area itself houses two hot baths, one cold bath, an electric bath and two jet baths as well as a sauna. While the baths themselves are well maintained, less functional parts seem to lack in maintenance.
The big surprise at Kusatsu Onsen is the outside bath. Not many of the small neighbourhood sento include outside baths, but here we find a small outside area with two baths. One bath is a small swimming pool like bath, with the water at about swimming pool temperature, but the other bath is a hot, natural hot spring powered bath. The water is milky in colour and contains a large variaty of minerals, all with their own presummed health benefit. Especially on a cold winter night this bath is as comfortable as it gets at this sento.
Kusatsu Onsen is easy to get to and withing five minutes walk from the station. The entrance fee is the usual 380 yen for the baths and an extra 90 yen to also be allowed access into the sauna. As proof of payment for the sauna the visitor receives a yellow towel that is to be taking into the sauna.
Tags: experience, sento
This entry was posted on Thursday, January 7th, 2010 at 10:00 pm and is filed under Experience reports, Kusatsu . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.
