Wasure no Sato Gajoen
unscored · Ikyu 4.7 / 5no first-hand write-up in the thread
Gajoen is the Myoken Onsen ryokan credited with first putting hot-spring flow-through private open-air baths into guest rooms, opening in 1970 in a Kagoshima gorge where hot springs steam from the rocks. The thread knows it almost entirely by reputation, since the one member who stayed, about nine years ago, found it amazing but cautions it may have changed since. Ikyu guests give it 4.67 across 31 reviews, praising the local cooking and the warm staff, though the weakest reviews flag steep stairs.
Scores
Food
The cooking is local. Repeat visitors on Ikyu praise dishes built on local vegetables and local seasoning, beautiful to look at and gentle on the body, and small onigiri are handed over for the train home. Ikyu guests put the food at 4.71, though the two weakest reviews both fault the breakfast.
Bath
Gajoen is credited as the first ryokan to put hot-spring flow-through open-air baths into its guest rooms, and it opened in 1970 in Myoken Onsen, where hot springs gush from the riverside rock. The room baths are source-fed, and there are private baths too, including the Takeyu and a cool carbonated 'ramune' bath, though the weakest Ikyu reviews flag steep, narrow stairs on the way to them. Ikyu guests put the baths at 4.68.
Service
Warm staff are what repeat visitors single out, and the warmest reviews come from guests on their second or third stay who say they want to come back every year; departing guests get a small bouquet to take home. Ikyu guests give service their highest mark, 4.84, well ahead of the rooms and facilities. The two weakest reviews both warn that the many steps and steep, narrow stairs make it hard going for anyone with weak knees.
Room
The guest buildings have thatched roofs and earthen walls that merge with the greenery, and the Kaze room has a fully open, sudare-screened terrace that fills the room with the green outside. Rooms are split between the older-style buildings and the newer Sora building, and they have an open-air bath and a daybed. Ikyu guests put the rooms at 4.55, their lowest mark.
Place
The ryokan sits on the Amori River in Myoken Onsen, Kagoshima, in a gorge where hot springs gush from hollow orange rock, and KI-NRT has seen it from the footbath at Myoken Ishiharaso directly across the river; he suggests pairing the two, and says Sakurajima is worth visiting on a clear day. Repeat visitors on Ikyu give the sound of the river and the surrounding nature as reasons they keep coming back.
Getting there
- Fukuoka — 2h45, 1 transfer. Shinkansen Hakata to Kagoshima-Chuo, then ~15 min car from Kagoshima Airport area to the inn.
- Kagoshima — 0h55, 0 transfers. ~15 min by car from Kagoshima Airport to the inn.
- Nagasaki — 4h30, 3 transfers
Sources
Ikyu 4.67 / 5 · #214 (thread mentions)