Hokkaido · 2 h 13 from Kushiro · Lake resort

Tattoo friendly onsen at Lake Akan

One company sets the terms in this village. Tsuruga runs three of its largest houses and prints the same refusal on all of them, counting sticker tattoos as tattoos rather than as a remedy, so there is no seal route anywhere on the lake. Its flagship, Akan Yuku no Sato Tsuruga, answers with an eighth-floor family bath booked in 75-minute blocks and a wing of balcony tubs. Akan Tsuruga Bessou Hinanoza gives all twenty-five suites an open-air spring bath of their own, and Hotel Gozensui runs source water into the hinoki tubs on its balconies.

4 properties

Private baths only

Tattoos are fine in a private or in-room bath. The communal baths are restricted, or the policy is unconfirmed. What this means

Akanko Onsen, lakefront at the west end of the village by the Ainu Kotan lane Ryokan ★★★★★ Confirmed

Akan Yuku no Sato Tsuruga

あかん遊久の里鶴雅

The house refuses the large baths in writing: its FAQ answers the tattoo question with a plain request to refrain, and that covers the eighth-floor view bath, the rooftop dome sauna and the ground-floor Hogaden complex. What it sells instead is a booked door. The eighth floor also holds a family bath called Hanatachibana-no-yu, taken by reservation in 75-minute blocks at 2,200 yen, open 15:00 to 23:45. Above that, five room types in the Miyabi annex have a hot-spring tub on the balcony, so the shared-bath rule never applies to you.

刺青・タトゥーがあるお客様の大浴場の利用はご遠慮いただいております。

Best for: A tattooed traveler who wants the full big-ryokan Akan experience and is willing to book the eighth-floor family bath or a balcony tub

The family bath is 花橘の湯 on the 8th floor, reservation only, 75 minutes per slot at 2,200 yen including tax, available 15:00–23:45. It is also offered free, on priority, to guests with physical limitations or recent surgery, and it is barrier-free with a care lift. The annex room types with their own hot-spring bath are 温泉付展望特別室, 展望風呂付和洋特別室, 露天風呂付和洋室, 露天風呂付和室12畳 and 露天風呂付洋室; the presidential suite 秋霜 also has one. Rooms in the main buildings (こもれび, レラ, 栞) and the Wings annex do not. Sister houses THE FOREST Akan and Hinanoza send their guests here when they want the family bath.

Akan Yuku no Sato Tsuruga tattoo policy → Check availability

Akanko Onsen, lakefront in the middle of the village beside New Akan Hotel Ryokan ★★★★☆ Confirmed

Akan Tsuruga Bessou Hinanoza

あかん鶴雅別荘鄙の座

The villa annex publishes the same refusal as the rest of the Tsuruga group, and its wording is unusually specific: tattoos are refused in the large bath, and the sentence names sticker types as included rather than as a remedy. Read that as no cover-seal route. It does not matter much here, because the same site states that every room in the house has its own hot-spring open-air bath. Book any room and you never need the shared floor.

入れ墨（刺青）やタトゥー（シール類含む）をされているお客様の大浴場のご利用はご遠慮いただいております。

Best for: A tattooed traveler who wants the question settled at the door of their own room, on the lake, with no negotiation at all

The inn states 当館の客室には全室、温泉露天風呂がついております, so the private tub is not a room-type upgrade here, it is the standard. This is the most expensive house in the village by a wide margin. It shares an operator and a reservation desk with Akan Yuku no Sato Tsuruga and THE FOREST Akan, and it is the group house where the structure answer is cleanest.

Akan Tsuruga Bessou Hinanoza tattoo policy → Check availability

Akanko Onsen, on Route 240 at the west end of the village Hotel ★★★★☆ Confirmed

Hotel Gozensui

ホテル御前水

Gozensui says nothing about tattoos anywhere on its own site, so treat the large bath and the open-air bath as an unknown and do not read the silence as a yes. The reason to come anyway is the room category the hotel calls 露天風呂付客室, which it describes as a hinoki open-air tub running 100 percent source water. That tub is yours, and it is the only answer this hotel gives a tattooed guest.

源泉100％の檜のかおり漂う露天風呂

Best for: A traveler who wants source water on their own balcony without the price of the villa annex down the road

Three room families are published: 和室・和洋室, an 囲炉裏部屋 with a sunken hearth, and 露天風呂付客室. Only the last has the private tub, so ask for it by name when you book. The hotel gives the spring as 単純泉・中性低張性高温泉, colorless, and says the large bath runs 100 percent source water too. No reservable family bath is listed.

Hotel Gozensui tattoo policy → Check availability

Okurushube, on the Akan river about 8 km downstream of the onsen village Hotel ★★★★☆ Confirmed

La Vista Akangawa

カムイの湯ラビスタ阿寒川

Nothing on this hotel’s pages addresses tattoos, so the riverside large bath Kajin-no-yu is an unknown. Everything else about the place is built to make that moot. The hotel states that every guest room, without exception, has a hinoki hot-spring tub fed from the source and filled at the push of a button, and it keeps three separate private bathhouses named Hoshi-no-yu, Tsuki-no-yu and Kaze-no-yu that it says are free, need no reservation and are open around the clock when empty.

貸切風呂は無料・予約不要でお愉しみいただけます。

Best for: A traveler with a car who wants a source-fed tub in the room and three more behind locked doors, on a river instead of a resort street

This is a Kyoritsu Resort house, so the Dormy breakfast and night-noodle habits apply. The three private baths are built in brick, hinoki and ceramic; the hotel says they are first come, first served rather than booked. The room tubs are described as 天然温泉檜造りの部屋風呂 with 源泉掛け流し and a one-touch fill. The large bath runs 15:00 to 11:00 with a cleaning break. It is off the village, not in it: budget a car or the hotel shuttle, and note Booking.com measures it at about 7 km from the lake.

La Vista Akangawa tattoo policy → Check availability

Traveler’s note

Marimo-yu, the village bathhouse, has closed, so every bath left at Lake Akan belongs to a hotel and costs a room or a day-bathing fee. New Akan Hotel asks everyone in its rooftop Tenku Garden Spa to wear a bathing garment or a swimsuit and has never written a tattoo rule to go with it. THE FOREST Akan refuses and keeps neither a private bath nor a room bath. La Vista Akangawa sits 8 km downstream, so come with a car.

Getting there

Tickets for the ride in

JR Hokkaido Rail Pass Five, seven or ten days of unlimited JR trains on the island, which covers the Ozora limited express from Sapporo to Kushiro. The Akan Bus from Kushiro to the lake, 2,750 yen, is paid separately.

Sold on Klook. Booking through these links costs you nothing extra and sends a small commission our way.

Common questions

Tattoo friendly onsen at Lake Akan questions

Can I use a shared bath in Akan with a tattoo?

Not at a listed one. The Tsuruga houses refuse their large baths in writing and name sticker types inside the refusal, and no operator on the lake publishes a seal size. Hotel Gozensui and La Vista Akangawa say nothing at all, which this guide treats as unanswered rather than open.

Which Akan hotels give tattooed guests a bath of their own?

Hinanoza, where the private tub is standard in every suite rather than an upgrade. La Vista Akangawa fills a cypress tub in every room at the push of a button and keeps three private bathhouses free and unbooked. Akan Yuku no Sato Tsuruga rents its eighth-floor family bath at 2,200 yen a turn, lift and all.

How do I get to Akan from Kushiro?

Akan Bus leaves the north side of Kushiro station and reaches Akanko Bus Center in about 1 h 53, with a twelve-minute walk into the village after it, 2,750 yen. Check the operating days, because the timetable is seasonal. Sapporo to Kushiro on the Ozora is 4 h 04 before any of that.

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