we were sooo disappointed having stayed with ANA in Fukuoka and Hiroshima, both of which were excellent. This hotel is old, tired, small and in a terrible location away from town centre. The staff don't speak much english or understand much english and no-one could speak english properly. The air conditioning had been turned off in the rooms and it was quite a hot day so the rooms were like saunas. Despite complaints no-one at the hotel knew what to do.

The bathroom was a small boxy afterthought that looked like a pre-fab dropped into the corner of the room.

We moved to the Nikko which was 1000% better than this Fawlty Towers!

As other reviewers have commented, the hotel isn't really in the best location for anything lying mid-way between the station and town centre. It is on the tram line from one to the other, but not really in convenient walking distance.

Kumamoto itself is worth visiting for the famous castle and as a base for visiting Mt. Aso, which is a couple of hours away by train and bus.

The hotel itself is quite tired looking and doesn't seem to have had any serious refurbishment since when it was built in the 60s or 70s. The room was reasonably spacious by Japanese standards with a good view out over the city from about the 20th floor (although we weren't sure because of the bizarre floor numbering in the lift). It was also reasonably clean. However the decor and furniture was very dated and the air conditioning was rubbish. In a sticky Japanese summer this is quite a minus point.

Would I go back? Probably not, but if this is the only choice in your price range, you could certainly do worse.

Beware -- this hotel is definitely NOT near the center of town. Being close to the city center, the castle, the arcaded streets, restaurants, and shopping is important in Kumamoto. This hotel isn't near any of them.

The lobby and coffee shop are attractive enough, but the rooms have that tired '60's look. The single rooms are on the small side. My own room had a weird jog in it because someone forgot to put the wall in the right place to accomodate the smallish picture window with a disappointing view.

On the plus side there is a city trolley that seems to go to the center of town. I didn't try it as my small group had its own bus.

The breakfast buffet was fairly unexciting and the coffee was poor.

You'll have to pay 500 (about $5) yen per day to connect to the internet with your own computer.

If I ever return, I'd be inclined to stay at the Nikko which is right in the middle of everything.