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

Akan Yuku no Sato Tsuruga

あかん遊久の里 鶴雅

Does Akan Yuku no Sato Tsuruga allow tattoos? In a private bath

Private bath only

The bathing at Akan’s largest inn stacks vertically: a seventh- and eighth-floor view bath called Ama-no-hara with a rooftop open-air tub above it, a glass dome sauna on the roof, and a ground-floor complex of seven different tubs called Hogaden that runs down to a garden bath at lake level. The eighth floor also holds one door that locks, booked 75 minutes at a time.

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.

Show this at the front desk

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。

The operator’s own wording, to show at the desk if you need to.

Where it is

Kushiro STN Akan Bus, Akan line about 2 h Sapporo STN Hakodate STN Asahikawa STN Hotel location
Akanko bus center
Sapporo is the door to all of these. Asahikawa is 1 h 25 on the Kamui limited express, Obihiro 2 h 42 on the Tokachi and Kushiro 4 h 04 on the Ozora; buses carry on from there to Sounkyo, Asahidake, Tokachigawa, Lake Akan and Utoro. Closer in, Noboribetsu is about 1 h 45, Jozankei 56 minutes by coach, Toyako Onsen 2 h 20 and Niseko about 3 h 25. Akan Yuku no Sato Tsuruga · map data © OpenStreetMap contributors · open in Google Maps

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.

What happens when you arrive

Skip the shared baths and reserve the private one the way this page describes. Once the door is closed, the bath is yours.

How we know

Confirmed from official site (the tattoo answer, the 家族風呂 answer and the room-bath answer all in the inn’s own FAQ)

Read on: tsuruga.com/faq/

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.

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