Kusatsu Kotodama

I liked the affordable cost for a clean tatami room. There was also a kitchen available for cooking your own meals and a grocery store across the street. The staff was very helpful and even kept watch over my suitcase before check-in and after check-out so that I could enjoy the onsen.

Nothing in particular!

If you want to enjoy both Japan's simple lifestyle and really good quality hot spring in a fairly inexpensive way, Kotodama is one of the best hostels in my pleasant travel experiences. Its ordinal house is well cleanly and neatly kept with very simple accommodations and interiors. There are many public hot springs, which is free, and local people use them, around this hostel. If you stay at Kusatsu hot spring longer and enjoy such public hot springs, you must finally find your favorite one. As for me, "喜美の湯" （Kimino-yu), where is located A minute walk from Kotodama, is the favorite one!

Kotodama Guest house was really cosy. Even though I went alone as a female, all the other guests that stayed there happened to be solo travellers as well, so we instantly clicked. It was EXTREMELY good value for the price I paid. I didn't use the shower room so I can't talk about the cleanliness of it, but everything else was generally really clean. There's a mini locker for all 4 guests to keep their valuables in. The staff explained everything in English (like places to visit, general house-keeping stuff etc.).

The location of the guest house was in the opposite direction of the touristy stuff (with the bus station as reference point), just meant more walking but it's not big of a deal.

The location, the size of the room and the small kitchen were perfect !

One of the window had a blind but the other one didn't so that in the morning the room was super bright It could be much nicer by adding that second blind