Introduction
I’m Yoshi. I was born and raised in Japan, and I love showing its beauty to people from all over the world.
Why I started this site
I fell for onsen when I was 13, on my first trip to Shiretoko, in the far northeast of Hokkaido. I stayed at a remote hotel and walked into an open-air bath in the forest. I still remember the stars I saw while soaking in the hot spring water. I have loved onsen ever since, and it has been my passion to show onsen to the world.
It pains me to see travelers from abroad refused entry to an onsen because of their tattoos. That is why I started this site. It lists only places where a tattooed traveler can get into the water: 1,262 baths in 104 towns so far.
I’ve covered all the usual suspects: Hakone, Kusatsu, Arima, Nikko, Atami, Kinosaki and more. These are the famous onsen towns many of you already know. But I’ve also shone a light on small towns off the beaten path that you’ve probably never heard of. They deserve your attention and your visits just as much. I hope you’ll venture out to these lesser-known places, find peace and joy there, and help support their local economies.
How a place gets listed
Every listing is checked against the operator’s own words: its website, its house rules, its FAQ. Each one is sorted into one of three kinds.
- Tattoo-friendly: the operator says tattoos are welcome in the shared baths, with nothing to cover.
- Cover-up: a tattoo is allowed if a cover seal hides it. Where the operator gives a seal size, the listing gives it too, in centimeters and inches. How seals work.
- Private bath: a bath you have to yourself, whether a family bath you lock or a room with its own tub, so the shared-bath rule never comes into it.
Places that refuse tattoos are left out, and where a well-known one refuses, the town page says so, so nobody has to find out at the desk. Where an operator’s own pages say nothing, we phone and ask, and those listings say “we contacted the hotel directly”, with the month of the call. Where a room tub is heated tap water rather than the spring, the listing says that plainly.
How the site pays for itself
Many listings have links to book through Booking.com, Agoda and other sites, and train passes and tickets through Klook. If you book through one of them it costs you nothing extra, and the site earns a small commission. That keeps the guide free and up to date for the tattoo community. No place pays to be listed, and a commission never changes what a listing says about tattoos.
Contact
Email: tattooallowedonsen@gmail.com
Rules change, and you will often know before we do. If a place turned you away, let you in when this guide said it would not, or has closed, please write so the listing can be corrected.
Enjoy the water!
Yoshi