Fu Fu No Yu Onsen — Local services in Kyoto

I wish I can give no star but I can’t. The male reception staff on 20th May evening was utterly rude. I offered to give him all shoes locker keys and my tickets at one go as there were no instruction on the protocol he insisted on, but he didn’t take them all. He just tried to rush through all things in Japanese with limited body language impatiently. Finally we understood that he wanted us to give him the male and female keys separately. No problem it’s easy peasy. We followed his instructions and clear stuffs for him. In order to do things step by step without overwhelming the counter, I just hold the tickets in my hand when we sorted the keys things out. After he exchanged the shoes locker keys to the bath locker keys to us, I found there was no barcode to log the expenditure so I wonder how can we rent a towel. After I said towel, he just went crazy and repeated the same words angrily. At the end he chose to hit my hand and grab the tickets in my hand with angry murmur. I was so shocked. I had never experienced such a terrible customer service in any place I visited around the world, it is even more ridiculous that happened in Japan. With so many tickets that they collected from EACH customer, why don’t him just pick one from table so I can understand what he was after? I am not sure but his attitude is much better towards: Westerner male Japanese Asian female who doesn’t speak Japanese might be in trouble when you visit the bath. To be honest if the facilities are great, I think it still worths a try, but it is not. The shower area is not clean and the floor felt so soapy. There are only two indoor and one outdoor pools which are equally hot, so most of the customers only stay for 15 minutes and have to go asap and it was too stuffy. I had visited another bath/onsen nearby, that was a very local one but with cheaper price, better staffs, more pools and cleaner facilities. They don’t speak English too but we can communicate without any problem. We even ate dinner there! I hope people can see this before going Fu-Fu-no-yu as they may simply ruin your mood and it’s not worth it. AVIOD THIS PLACE! You have better...

Pros: Convenient location Good service Feels like an authentic onsen (not “touristy”) Beautiful, clean, AC

Cons: None that we experienced

This was our first family onsen experience and it was definitely worth the ¥1000 per person (平日/Weekdays ¥1000 )(土日/Weekends ¥1200) It was Monday and the onsen had just opened so it wasn’t crowded at all. When we first got there, the staff was very helpful with purchasing our admission tickets and towels using the machine, as well as explaining how to politely use the facilities. Big plus— for ¥250 you get a bath towel rental as well as a souvenir hand towel you can keep! Of course that is completely optional as many locals bring their own towels. The locker room for your clothes was very clean and came with a lot of convenient things (hair dryer, combs, etc.) The indoor section of the onsen was really nice with a shower area, hot pool, steam room, and milky pool. Another big plus for the bath scrubs you can use in the shower area. The outdoors was a nice garden with a hot pool, cold (like REALLY cold) pool, and a sauna. We particularly enjoyed sitting in the cold pool and then immediately going into the sauna. After doing the bamboo forest walk the onsen was so refreshing. If you think that the day is too hot for an onsen, think again!

We easily spent 90 mins and would...

Hey westerners read this!

So this was my first onsen experience, and boy was it one to remember. First off, there is very little English in there so be prepared to speak a little to get info or do what I did and wait around watching people and then doing what they did.

Here's the process: put shoes in locker and take the key, use the machine to buy your day ticket and towels, take the tickets to the front desk and give them your shoe key. They'll give you the towels (if you bought them) and they'll hold on to your shoe key and give you a locker key.

From this point out its very simple, find your gender and strip down. I stood there awkwardly wondering where the showers were, but a nice guy directed me to them (they're inside the bathing area). And thats it... provided you know how to use an onsen (google it).

Overall it was a great experience and I'm glad I did it here as it was fairly low key and quiet. The staff was pretty nonchalant, but the baths were well kept and clean. People inside were quiet, I didn't talk to anyone... not that I could have anyways, either way I preferred the silence. The outdoor area was really nice, and the salt water bath was where I spend most of my time. Again, I had a great time and it was well worth the price....