To get to Kagoshima City(鹿児島市), the final stop of this trip, you have to switch from the Hisatsu Orange Railway(肥薩おれんじ鉄道) to the Kagoshima Main Line(鹿児島本線).
And this is the place where that happens — Sendai Station(川内駅), the last stop on the Hisatsu Orange Railway and the first on the Kagoshima Main Line.
So even though Satsumasendai City(薩摩川内市) isn’t exactly known for sightseeing, I built a day into the schedule here, thinking of it as a rest stop for changing trains.
Akune Station(阿久根駅) to Sendai Station takes a little over 30 minutes, and Sendai Station to Kagoshima-Chuo Station(鹿児島中央駅) is about 50 minutes — so honestly, there was no real need to rest at all.
But I suppose I wanted to visit one more city in Kagoshima Prefecture.
:: Three minutes on foot from Sendai Station — Super Hotel Satsumasendai
Since my reason for staying in this city was “to change trains,” I looked into hotels near the station. Turns out Satsumasendai City has quite a few.
The one I picked was Super Hotel Satsumasendai(スーパーホテル薩摩川内).
It’s a reasonably priced three-star business hotel. I think it’s the price range most people end up choosing on an ordinary trip. Maybe that’s why there are so many similar hotels around the station. So why did I pick this one? Because it has a separate hot spring bath.
It’s a small bath, and since the men’s and women’s sides aren’t separated, they split it by time slot, which is a bit inconvenient. Even so, I have my reasons for preferring hotels with a separate bath.
Soaking in a hot bath and working out the fatigue is nice, of course, but there’s also the fact that you end up not using the bathroom in your room, so the small room doesn’t get damp.
So when I’m picking a hotel in Japan, I tend to prefer places with a separate bath, even if it isn’t a hot spring.
I think the room I stayed in was an Extra Room(エクストラルーム). Very roomy for one person, and the layout is a bit interesting. The table and chair are in an unusual position, but it was surprisingly comfortable.
Overall the hotel feels clean and well kept.
There’s a Welcome Bar(ウェルカムバー) on the first floor, free for anyone staying at the hotel. In the morning they serve a free breakfast, and in the afternoon they put out shochu, whisky and the like, also free. In the small hours you can get warm tea too.
I overslept, so I missed the breakfast, and I was out wandering the entertainment district at night, so I never got to the shochu or whisky either — but offering this range of things for free is a real strength of this hotel, I think.
:: Above all, the kindness was the biggest plus.
Remember I said I burned my whole body cycling under the midsummer sun in Akune? So I needed some moisturizer for my skin, and I asked about a nearby drugstore. To one of the staff.
They told me there wasn’t a drugstore nearby, and then offered to lend me their own cream. When I firmly declined, they pulled out a cooling towel from the various free amenities the hotel keeps on hand and gave me that instead. In the end the hotel had a good range of free lotions available, so I used those for first aid (?).
So, in conclusion — Super Hotel Satsumasendai is a reasonably priced business hotel. It has a small hot spring bath, and services like the free breakfast and free drinks are excellent. Those are its strengths.
But the reason I recommend this hotel, as you can tell from the episode above, is that the staff are genuinely kind. It really moved me.
Oh, and this is absolutely not a sponsored post. This blog is only ever about things I actually experienced and felt myself.
