Myoken Onsen "Rakuenso"
With the owner family Tamayo Matsuda in the garden
We visited Myoken Onsen "Rakuenso" in HayatochÅ Kareigawa, Kirishima.
The owner family Tamayo welcomed us at the reception. She says, some months ago, visitors from Taiwan said "You look like Tsai Ing-wen!" and took a lot of pictures of her. We googled and agreed with that. lol
The dressing room is quite simple. You need to keep your valuables by yourself.
The bathroom is overall brown-coloured, which may indicate the rich minerals. There are two bathtubs, the one on the near side is a warm bath and the other is a hot bath. Also, there is a strong waterfall shower (utaseyu) on the far-right corner in this picture.
A pipe sending the hot spring water is split to two taps, and they are inclined. The amount of water is adjusted to control the bath temperature. The water type is sodium bicarbonate saline spring, and it is said that the water can get rid of fatigue and treat skin diseases.
Yasuyoshi (the name of the man in the picture) has been coming to Rakuenso for a long time, and comes to Rakuenso everyday with his wife in the recent two years. He is now 82 years old and loves to play ground golf (Japanese original sports).
Rakuenso was opened by Tamayo's father in 1980, he drilled the ground to discover a hot spring source to ease his wife who suffered rheumatism. Both of the two hot spring sources were drilled by himself, that might an ultimate DIY, amazing!
Rakuenso mainly serves as an inn for the therapeutic bathing, and thus it has some buildings for staying. Many visitors used to come for the therapeutic bathing because the reputation spread only word by mouth to all over Japan. In that age, the average occupancy rate exceeded 90% and Rakuenso was said as a "hard-to-reserve therapeutic inn."
Each building (for staying) has a dedicated bath. If you do not like bathing together with others, you can take a private bath quietly.
MAP
INFORMATION
Name: Myoken Onsen "Rakuenso"
Address: 4363 HayatochÅ Kareigawa, Kirishima, Kagoshima
Tel: 0995-77-2121
Access (Car): 48 min from the centre of Kagoshima city. 17 min from the Kagoshima airport
Parking Lot: 10
Opening Hours: Daily 10:00 - 19:00
Price: JPY 200