From the moment we arrived, the staff went out of their way to look after us and make us feel welcome. They carried out (very heavy!) bags to our room for us, explained about how a Japanese style room works and provided us with Yukata to wear during our stay. They were extremely polite and attentive, and patient with our limited Japanese skills. They also went out of their way to drop us at the station to catch our bus when they saw us start to walk, which I appreciated so much because I know it was most people's day off so they had lower staffing that day. The room was clean, large and extremely comfortable. I had an excellent sleep in my futon on the tatami mats. They even provided a local sweet for us to have with our tea. The on-site onsen was also very clean, and when I went in the evening it was just me. There is an indoor and outdoor bath, and if you are shy or want to bath with your significant other, you can rent a private bath for a small additional fee. Additionally, they have an excellent foot bath on site where you can sip coffee. And though I didn't use the service, you can book a massage. The accommodation is very close to everything you could need in town including Sainokawara Park. There is also a little cafe with amazing fluffy breakfast pancakes and a small art museum right next to the accommodation. I had an amazing time and I would recommend it to anyone considering trying a Japanese onsen experience for the first time.

The staff is amazing. The owner, manager, and staff are incredibly helpful in helping you with getting around in Japan. The location is also perfect because it's right next to the open air onsen and in a great location overall to visit the yubatake and shops.

I wish I got a Japanese style room, but I got a Western style room. Perhaps I missed an option to select, but it would've been nice to try it out. The Western style rooms include a low platform bed on tatami mats, which is still fine.

Great location, dinner and breakfast are fantastic, staff very helpful, building very nice looking

Hotel is not tattoo friendly. Most of the rooms don't have private bath, you have to use hotel shared bath ("onsen-like"). It's OK especially going to Kusatsu but if you got tattoos you won't be allowed to use the amenities. You will have to "shower" outside (thankfully all 3 big onsen are tattoo friendly)

Everything is really good The staff picked us up and dropped us off from and to the bus terminal The yubatake is really beautiful and still somewhat active even in late night

The onsen is pretty underwhelming for an old hotel in an onsen town Quite small and no sauna or various type of baths (not about the hotel) but the way to reach kusatsu onsen is a bit complicated because you need to do a lot of train transfers and the JR bus costing 710 yen per person for one-way trip was pretty taxing (5680 yen for a 4 people round trip to the nearest train station)

The experiance as a whole was a memory I will never forget. This hotel was part of that. The staff were polite and understanding. Being a foreigner we don't know all of the customs, the politely guided us to the correct customs never once making us fell uncomfortable or awkward. The customer service was the best of our trip to Japan. If I ran a hotel I would send all of my staff to this hotel to watch and learn. As a couple definitely take advantage of the private bath for a small charge as soon as you check in. Get clean and have your first soak in private with your partner and then bath as often as you can while there. I regret only 3 baths a day.

That I had only booked 2 nights. I could have spent a week and still not be satisfied. I felt relaxed and at peace in that beautiful town. I booked a standard tatami room, the futon was thin for a Canadian used to a pillow top matress.

This place is amazing, I felt like this hotel deserves more stars than what it has! The building is beautiful and the room I booked definitely met my expectations. The hotel has a shuttle bus that can collect you from the bus terminal. Once you arrive, they take your luggage from you and have them delivered straight to your room. You take off your shoes at the entrance and they immediately put them away for you - no need for you to bend down or reach over - and they know exactly who you are so that when you next come to the front of the hotel your shoes are already out and ready for you to wear and walk outside! The staff are extremely polite and helpful and did their absolute best to make our stay the best. The building is well maintained and the room is very clean. They also have private onsens for rent and provide you with their own yukata which you can wear around town with! The general temperature of the waters in Kusatsu is naturally very high so prepare to immerse yourself in very hot water when going to any of the onsens. There is a cold water station just outside the hotel’s onsens so that you can cool off and rehydrate after taking a dip. We booked with breakfast and it was probably the best breakfast I’ve had during my holiday - the traditional Japanese breakfast served was healthy, filling, and very delicious! It had a variety of small dishes and the presentation was just as great as everything else. We stayed for two nights and each day had a different breakfast set. If we had any questions we could always ask the staff and they would do their best to accommodate us. They absolutely pamper you here and the cost is definitely worthy every penny. High quality service. 10/10 would come back again!

This is really minor and I understand that language barriers are hard! A staff member called our room to book our massages that we had previously requested but it seemed that they did not understand English much so couldn’t answer any of our questions. We got by this by just accepting a time slot and then spoke to the masseuse when the time came around. It wasn’t a big issue as most staff had a good understanding of English and this certainly won’t drop my impression of this hotel!

Helpful staff at counter Stayed in many ryokans before and rooms at Kusatsu are one of the better ones - very large and comfortable. Love the footbath Location is near Sainokawara, less than 5 mins walk

Food was disappointing. Expected better quality ingredients for price paid. Felt like cheap ingredients were plated up to look good only. Had far better quality at smaller ryokans. Unfortunately meal options were limited in that area at night. Also drinks like tea and water were not served - had to pay for drinks.

First of all - it has great location! 5 minutes walk to all of the main attractions, it's surrounded by hills, but you don't need to go there :) The room was definitely renovated not a long time ago - it was exceptionally clean, very spacious, all the amenities were provided. The breakfast and dinner were very good for their price, and the duck I tried at the dinner was one of the best in my life. The onsen area is nice, there are 1 outdoor (technically 2, but it's more like having a wall separating one) and 1 indoor onsen. There are hairdryers, hairbrushes and water. There is no view as there is a wooden wall keeping your privacy, but you can see the sky and if the weather is great - there would be a lot of stars. Coffee terrace was the only bummer, actually, because even having the footbath onsen (which is nice), it overviews the parking lot :(

I actually was really surprised by the property, it was great deal for this money, so no complaints (besides the coffee terrace, but I dunno how this could be fixed)

Modern kaiseki dinner and generous breakfast. I was impressed by the staff's attention to detail! In a ryokan, you have to take off your shoes at the entrance, and staff always knew right away when we came to the lobby which shoes were ours. We were three people of different nationalities. The head waiter in the dining room knew basic phrases in all of our native languages and served us in these languages as best as he could, very charming. The room was beautiful with a wonderful view of the autumn foliage right in front of the hotel. We had a perfect girls' vacation and couldn't have been happier!

Most beautiful hotel I’ve ever stayed in!!my room was large and exceeded all expectations I had. It was better than the photos! The baths were hot and didn’t harbour the strong smell that the hot springs outside have. The staff were very attentive and kind, breakfast was good! I got a massage which was very painful while I was having it however the therapist was extremely thorough and was even able to guess very specific things about my lifestyle. He showed me stretches and gave me some advice. Today, one day later, I haven’t felt so light and free in a long time. Overall a relaxing overnight trip from Tokyo, I will definitely return again

The hotel is a bit of a walk from the main area, and does have in uphill portion. However, the walk is lined with many stores and good views