炯 -kei- — Hotel in Kusatsu

Finally! A high-end hot springs ryokan in Kusatsu Onsen! That's what we thought upon learning of the opening of Kusatsu Onsen Kei, a 7-room ryokan that was established in 2019. Kusatsu Onsen (in Gunma Prefecture) is one of the most famous and revered onsen locales in all of Japan, but it was missing a flagship luxury property. It's also priced accordingly - it's up there when it comes to room rate, so we thought it must be awesome. Unfortunately, Kusatsu Onsen Kei has quite a few kinks to iron out before it is elevated to the upper echelon of Japan's high-end ryokans, if it ever gets there.||First off is the location - it's not inconveniently situated, but neither is it in the heart of the action, which is the main "Yubatake" area of the Onsen town. It's about a 5 minute walk, but it's a bit of an uphill climb to get there. Ideally, it would be facing the main Yubatake area with views from the room; however, given the limited amount of real estate in the town center, I wouldn't hold that against them.||The building is nondescript and faces an area that is home to "Jizo Gensen", which is one of several hot spring sources at Kusatsu Onsen. There's a cute little shrine and an area where you can see the spring water flowing beneath the ground via a cut-out (there's a glassed area where it's visible.) The ryokan has no garden or any sort of grounds, for that matter - it's simply a small building; note that it's an Onsen town with limited land, so I doubt any ryokan near the center has a tranquil garden regardless.||Once inside, the architecture and decor is modern and relatively stylish, if a bit dark. Aside from the main lobby lounge, there is no other communal area - the purpose of most visitors is to explore the town, so it's no big deal.||While we wanted Takasago, the ryokan's top room at 95m², unfortunately it was already taken. We settled for the next best thing, the 85m² A01 Type Suite with Open-Air Onsen Bath. The Suite had a separate living room and bedroom, although it's not completely sealed off from one another - rather, it's separated by a sort of partition. There's also an odd, alcove area (call it the "dungeon") next to the bedroom that can serve as a work area (it contains a small desk and a chair.) The bathroom has two sinks, an indoor shower area and the open-air onsen bath. Overall, it ticks most boxes. We also appreciated the living room having both a Western style sofa as well as a Japanese tatami floor area that has a cutout where you can lower your feet to a heated "ditch" - way more comfortable than having to sit cross-legged on the floor.||One thing that puzzled us was the toilet: for a property that is new, I'm not sure why the controls of the toilet do not allow one-touch button functionality to lift (and put down) the toilet seat itself. This is de rigueur in Japanese accommodations, even in typical hotels. Also, the towels were extremely thin, not soft at all and did not absorb moisture very well - they really should not cheap out on things like this. Similarly, the toiletries on offer were minimal and low quality relative to other ryokans during our trip through Gunma Prefecture.||The other perplexing aspect was the fact that only 3 of the 7 rooms have in-room Onsen, which are the Takasago, A01 and C01 room types. For a luxury ryokan that charges such high nightly rates in one of the most famous Onsen towns in the country, and with no property grounds to speak of, to me this is inexcusable. If you want in-room Onsen, choose your room wisely!||Another thing to keep in mind - Kusatsu Onsen Kei sources its hot springs from two different sources: Bandaiko Gensen and Jizo Gensen. A01 and Takasago uses Bandaiko Gensen in its in-room bath, while C01 gets its onsen from Jizo Gensen. Why? I don't know. They are dramatically different hot springs in terms of mineral composition and smoothness/feel, so if you want to try both varieties, you should combine your soak between the in-room onsen and one of the three Onsen baths that can be privately rented by the hour at the ryokan. Two of them (Hikari and Awase) are indoor Onsen on the first floor and get their source from Jizo Gensen, while Ryoku is on the third floor, gets its source from Bandaiko Gensen and is a Rotenburo (open-air bath.) The first two rental baths are unique and atmospheric (even though they're indoors), wheras Ryoku is a "typical" bath in terms of aesthetics. Be aware that Jizo Gensen has softer Onsen, so if you have sensitive skin you might want to stick with Jizo; Bandaiko Gensen is more acidic in composition.||Food wise, we enjoyed the kaiseki meal for dinner. We've had more amazing luxury ryokan meals, but we were satisfied with the quality and quantity of Kei's offerings. They served delicacies such as Fugu (puffer fish), Suppon (soft-shelled turtle) and Kobako-gani (female Snow Crab) - each were creatively prepared, beautifully presented and wonderful in taste. Overall, we doubt that anyone would walk away hungry or without remembering a few memorable dishes.||Service was uneven and somewhat cold. There is someone that is usually standing behind the reception counter, which is right near the entrance door. Every time we departed from and return to the ryokan, not once were we greeted with ("have a great time!" or "welcome back! how was your outing") comment. At dinner, the server - while eager and charming - was not super familiar with each of the servings... something we demand from a ryokan that serves elaborate regional and seasonal delicacies. Not to mention, unlike at most ryokans, one waitperson is not assigned to your table. Some of the wait staff were foreigners, which is perfectly fine, expect that they varied in their knowledge of what was being served. Simple questions such as "where did this rice come from?" were often times met with "I don't know, let me find out" replies.||We are glad to have visited Kusatsu Onsen, and in no way did Kusatsu Onsen Kei detract from our experience. But given the rates that they charge, I do feel that the ryokan has cut too many corners and needs to improve staff training in order to be a true, destination ryokan worthy of...

Finally! A high-end hot springs ryokan in Kusatsu Onsen! That's what we thought upon learning of the opening of Kusatsu Onsen Kei, a 7-room ryokan that was established in 2019. Kusatsu Onsen (in Gunma Prefecture) is one of the most famous and revered onsen locales in all of Japan, but it was missing a flagship luxury property. It's also priced accordingly - it's up there when it comes to room rate, so we thought it must be awesome. Unfortunately, Kusatsu Onsen Kei has quite a few kinks to iron out before it is elevated to the upper echelon of Japan's high-end ryokans, if it ever gets there.||First off is the location - it's not inconveniently situated, but neither is it in the heart of the action, which is the main "Yubatake" area of the Onsen town. It's about a 5 minute walk, but it's a bit of an uphill climb to get there. Ideally, it would be facing the main Yubatake area with views from the room; however, given the limited amount of real estate in the town center, I wouldn't hold that against them.||The building is nondescript and faces an area that is home to "Jizo Gensen", which is one of several hot spring sources at Kusatsu Onsen. There's a cute little shrine and an area where you can see the spring water flowing beneath the ground via a cut-out (there's a glassed area where it's visible.) The ryokan has no garden or any sort of grounds, for that matter - it's simply a small building; note that it's an Onsen town with limited land, so I doubt any ryokan near the center has a tranquil garden regardless.||Once inside, the architecture and decor is modern and relatively stylish, if a bit dark. Aside from the main lobby lounge, there is no other communal area - the purpose of most visitors is to explore the town, so it's no big deal.||While we wanted Takasago, the ryokan's top room at 95m², unfortunately it was already taken. We settled for the next best thing, the 85m² A01 Type Suite with Open-Air Onsen Bath. The Suite had a separate living room and bedroom, although it's not completely sealed off from one another - rather, it's separated by a sort of partition. There's also an odd, alcove area (call it the "dungeon") next to the bedroom that can serve as a work area (it contains a small desk and a chair.) The bathroom has two sinks, an indoor shower area and the open-air onsen bath. Overall, it ticks most boxes. We also appreciated the living room having both a Western style sofa as well as a Japanese tatami floor area that has a cutout where you can lower your feet to a heated "ditch" - way more comfortable than having to sit cross-legged on the floor.||One thing that puzzled us was the toilet: for a property that is new, I'm not sure why the controls of the toilet do not allow one-touch button functionality to lift (and put down) the toilet seat itself. This is de rigueur in Japanese accommodations, even in typical hotels. Also, the towels were extremely thin, not soft at all and did not absorb moisture very well - they really should not cheap out on things like this. Similarly, the toiletries on offer were minimal and low quality relative to other ryokans during our trip through Gunma Prefecture.||The other perplexing aspect was the fact that only 3 of the 7 rooms have in-room Onsen, which are the Takasago, A01 and C01 room types. For a luxury ryokan that charges such high nightly rates in one of the most famous Onsen towns in the country, and with no property grounds to speak of, to me this is inexcusable. If you want in-room Onsen, choose your room wisely!||Another thing to keep in mind - Kusatsu Onsen Kei sources its hot springs from two different sources: Bandaiko Gensen and Jizo Gensen. A01 and Takasago uses Bandaiko Gensen in its in-room bath, while C01 gets its onsen from Jizo Gensen. Why? I don't know. They are dramatically different hot springs in terms of mineral composition and smoothness/feel, so if you want to try both varieties, you should combine your soak between the in-room onsen and one of the three Onsen baths that can be privately rented by the hour at the ryokan. Two of them (Hikari and Awase) are indoor Onsen on the first floor and get their source from Jizo Gensen, while Ryoku is on the third floor, gets its source from Bandaiko Gensen and is a Rotenburo (open-air bath.) The first two rental baths are unique and atmospheric (even though they're indoors), wheras Ryoku is a "typical" bath in terms of aesthetics. Be aware that Jizo Gensen has softer Onsen, so if you have sensitive skin you might want to stick with Jizo; Bandaiko Gensen is more acidic in composition.||Food wise, we enjoyed the kaiseki meal for dinner. We've had more amazing luxury ryokan meals, but we were satisfied with the quality and quantity of Kei's offerings. They served delicacies such as Fugu (puffer fish), Suppon (soft-shelled turtle) and Kobako-gani (female Snow Crab) - each were creatively prepared, beautifully presented and wonderful in taste. Overall, we doubt that anyone would walk away hungry or without remembering a few memorable dishes.||Service was uneven and somewhat cold. There is someone that is usually standing behind the reception counter, which is right near the entrance door. Every time we departed from and return to the ryokan, not once were we greeted with ("have a great time!" or "welcome back! how was your outing") comment. At dinner, the server - while eager and charming - was not super familiar with each of the servings... something we demand from a ryokan that serves elaborate regional and seasonal delicacies. Not to mention, unlike at most ryokans, one waitperson is not assigned to your table. Some of the wait staff were foreigners, which is perfectly fine, expect that they varied in their knowledge of what was being served. Simple questions such as "where did this rice come from?" were often times met with "I don't know, let me find out" replies.||We are glad to have visited Kusatsu Onsen, and in no way did Kusatsu Onsen Kei detract from our experience. But given the rates that they charge, I do feel that the ryokan has cut too many corners and needs to improve staff training in order to be a true, destination ryokan worthy of...

The chef and staff were the stars of our stay. Of the several high end onsens we have stayed at, none have matched the incredible taste and creativity of the meals we enjoyed here. The staff was truly kind and personable.

There are three private onsens on site, in addition to the one in our room. Of the three, the multi pool onsen was the best, however it was harder to find availability for. If there was one more private onsen it would’ve been perfect, but as it is, you will have to keep an eye out on the availability screen in your room, especially on peak days. The onsen in the rooms are quite nice, unfortunately not much of a view from it though.

The rooms are well appointed and beds very comfortable. The comforters are a bit on the thick and heavy side, even with the heater off in the middle of January. Blackout curtains were unfortunately unavailable, and some of the higher windows did not have window treatments.

Overall we had a really memorable stay and would love to come back again. We had some of the best meals ever here and really...