Hoshino Resorts Kai Unzen first opened about five months ago, and since we had never stayed at a Hoshino Resort before, we thought it a good time to check it out since it is close to our home. The resort is conveniently located almost in the middle of Unzen’s geothermal hot springs “hell” (one of Kyushu's premier onsen areas) and a couple of minutes walk from the center of the town of Unzen. The resort consists of 51 guest rooms, 19 of which have private onsen baths on their balconies on the top two floors. There is also a common onsen bath for men and women with a lounge outside and next to the hotel. We booked a one-night weekday stay in a standard room of 463 sqf and chose the breakfast-only option. https://hoshinoresorts.com/en/hotels/kaiunzen/

Hoshino Resorts Kai Unzen's facade


Check-In
When we arrived, we were met by three staff who took our bags and escorted us with umbrellas to the lobby lounge. We sat in chairs with a view of an artificial pond beyond which geothermal smoke billowed into the sky. The lobby lounge tastefully and attractively combines both Japanese and Western aesthetics and design and is a very relaxing space. A young man came over to check us in and then escorted us to our fourth-floor room where he explained the room’s features, scheduled our breakfast time, and answered our questions.

Lobby


Room
A floor-to-ceiling window covers the entire wall of the living room area, affording us a picturesque view of the pond, the geothermal hell, and the verdant forest. The 463 sqf room is rectangular with a living room area containing an L-shaped sofa and low coffee table with a smallish LCD TV (that can be pulled out at an angle) mounted on the wall. The beds are mattresses placed on an elevated wooden platform and were surprisingly comfortable. Opposite the beds is a wooden cabinet containing a refrigerator, drawers, cups, glasses, and tea and coffee-making utensils. A stained glass paneled motif (a popular motif in Nagasaki that pays homage to the area's Christian history) divides the room from the closet and bathroom areas. The bathroom contains a spacious stone-walled shower, and the toilet is in a separate room. Overall, the room is tastefully designed with a kind of Zen-ish simplicity but was a bit too spartan and simple (in a monastic kind of way) for my taste. However, the living room area is comfortable, and we enjoyed spending time relaxing there and taking in the view.








Onsen
Since we had no onsen on our balcony, we donned our yukatas, took the elevator to the first floor, and walked outside to the common onsen bathhouse for all guests. The onsen bathhouse is housed in a low wooden structure with a lounge with chairs and tables at its entrance and a counter with glass dispensers containing cold herbal beverages for hydrating after one’s bath. There’s also a small fridge built into the counter with frozen popsicle-like snacks. Red and blue noren separate the men’s and women’s entrances. The men’s side of the onsen contains a changing room with baskets lining shelves for placing one’s clothes in. There a several small square wooden lockers for safekeeping one’s valuables. The furoba consists of several personal washing stalls and two large rectangular baths, one hot and the other tepid. Dividing the indoor and outdoor onsen is an attractive stained glass wall, a reminder of Nagasaki’s historical foreign influences. There’s a sliding glass door that leads to the fairly spacious outdoor stone bath where you can sit in nature listening to birds and the whirling of wind as you soak and unwind. There were never more than about three people in total using the common bath when I was there, and on the morning of the last day, I had it all to myself. After exiting the bath, I enjoyed sitting in the lounge with a cold beverage and just relaxing. I liked the design of the bathhouse and baths and enjoyed relaxing there.

Common bathhouse

Bathhouse lounge

View of the hotel from the bathhouse

Inside baths

Dining
We did not eat dinner in the hotel restaurant, but instead brought some take-out sushi with us so we could eat quietly in our room, as the hotel has no in-room dining or room service. Breakfast was served in the hotel’s first-floor restaurant next to the lobby. The restaurant is spacious and divided into separate dining spaces for each couple or group. Instead of dividing walls, there are artistically designed panels that divide the dining spaces. Although aesthetically interesting, the entire dining space was windowless and overly dark, and this was at breakfast time. This stood in stark contrast to the lobby with its large windows which brought in bright outside natural light. The Japanese breakfast (I don’t think there was a Western option) was very good and better than we previously had at the Kyushu Hotel (reviewed up thread) next door. After breakfast, we headed back to the common onsen for our final baths before checking out.

Dining room entrance

Dining room space

The wall dividing our dining room space

Breakfast

Service
Our main contact with staff was limited to check-in and breakfast and at both times I found the staff to be friendly and sincere with a desire to please.

Hotel Activities
Besides bathing and dining, other activities are browsing the local crafts and goods for sale that are displayed on a long counter in the lobby. Next to this are two manual letterpress printers where guests can arrange letter blocks in Japanese to print cards or anything they can think of. There is someone there to help them and we watched guests create their own printed cards and mementos.

Library


Overall
The resort is tastefully designed in an artsy kind of way, and centrally located in Unzen, and each room offers great natural views. We were impressed with the food, although we only ate breakfast, and the common onsen was spacious and relaxing. We were less impressed with the overly spartan design of the room, although some of the larger rooms may have been better. The quality of the wood flooring was very good and solid, but the wood used elsewhere appeared to be of cheaper quality. The lobby, dining room, and onsen were all tastefully designed but the hallways were drab and plain. In particular, I found the building’s exterior to be extremely drab and disappointing considering the effort put into the interior design. The hotel’s atmosphere was Zen-like and introspective due in part to its minimalist design, but perhaps a little too much so for my taste. But since an onsen is for relaxation, there may be many who prefer the somewhat monastic atmosphere. While I think it offers a decent value, at a similar price point, I would consider the Kyushu Hotel (reviewed up thread) next door (even though I preferred the food at Hoshino Resort) a better value and a more luxurious, leisurely, and comfortable option. That said, location-wise it is excellent with access to the walkway that meanders through the Unzen Jigoku just next to the hotel, and the views from the rooms are picturesque.

Town of Unzen seen from the front of the hotel

Unzen Jigoku (Hell)