Kinugawa Kokusai Hotel

The bath

The water is a simple alkaline spring, colorless and odorless, smooth to the touch, which the hotel lists for neuralgia, rheumatism, wounds and burns, recovery after illness, joint and muscle pain and frozen shoulder. The biggest bath is Aishin-no-yu, a split-level hall with a Japanese garden to look at; Megumi-no-yu is the smaller, quieter hall. The hotel gives no hours and does not say whether the halls swap or whether day visitors are taken.

The private bath, Kashikiri-buro Dog, is built for a person and a dog together. The human tub is 45 cm deep at 42 degrees, the dog tub 32 cm deep at 35 degrees, with a washing area, a shake-off corner, a drying corner with a large dryer and a trimming table, and air conditioning in the changing room. It is 45 minutes for ¥3,300, booked at check-in. The pet plaza has an open-air bath for dogs alone, with a shower. Two special Japanese-Western rooms carry the same idea in private: Bandai has a half-open-air bath with a human tub and a dog tub fed from the source, a pet drying room, a 32 m² dog run on the terrace, a Simmons bedroom and a 10-mat Ryukyu-tatami room with a massage chair; Fuji has the half-open-air bath with both tubs, a drying room and a trimming table. One eighth-floor corner Western room has a cypress-style bath that the hotel does not call onsen.