Tenku Yubo Seikaiso
天空湯房 清海荘
Does Tenku Yubo Seikaiso allow tattoos? In a private bath
Four private baths sit on the roof at Seikaiso, one flight above the top floor, each behind its own door and each looking straight out at Beppu Bay. Paying the 1,000 yen is the whole point.
Seikaiso puts four private open-air baths on its roof, named for the Big Dipper, a shooting star, the galaxy and the Milky Way, each with its own entrance and its own tub. They run free-flowing from the source and they cost money even if you are staying: 1,000 yen for 45 minutes, against 2,500 on a weekday and 3,000 on a weekend for anyone walking in. Guests get an extra morning window from 7:00 to 8:30 that day visitors cannot book. Third-floor rooms billed as 半露天風呂付和洋室 add a half open-air bath in the room.
Show this at the front desk
ご宿泊のお客さまは45分1,000円（税込）でご利用いただけます。ご宿泊以外の立ち寄りは45分 平日2,500円・土日祝3,000円（税込）です。
The operator’s own wording, to show at the desk if you need to.
The bath
The four private baths are on the roof, one flight of stairs above the top floor with no elevator to them, and each has its own entrance as well as its own tub, so nobody walks past anyone. They are named for the Big Dipper, a shooting star, the galaxy and the Milky Way, they run free-flowing, and ReFa shower heads have been fitted to them. A guest pays 1,000 yen for forty-five minutes. Anyone walking in off the street pays 2,500 on a weekday or 3,000 at a weekend for the same forty-five, face towel included, and can book only by telephone on the day, starting between 12:00 and 14:00, with nothing taken after 15:00.
General hours are 12:00 to 21:00, and guests get one window nobody else can have, 07:00 to 08:30.
Downstairs the view bath is shared and indoors, with big sea-facing windows, free to guests from 15:00 to 01:00 and again 05:00 to 09:30. The water is a bicarbonate and chloride spring at 52.3°C, rising at 4,200 liters an hour.
The hotel
Twenty-seven rooms, eight Western and nineteen Japanese. Sea-facing rooms with a balcony foot bath keep it for their own guests, and third-floor Japanese-Western rooms carry a half open-air bath, the first room baths the inn has had. Guests may also bathe free at the sister hotel three minutes away, Seaside Hotel Mimatsu Oetei, which has a rooftop open-air bath on its seventh floor and a view bath on its third.
What is good about it
- Four rooftop baths, each behind its own door, 1,000 yen for 45 minutes if you are staying the night.
- A morning window only guests can book, 07:00 to 08:30, closed to day visitors.
- A flight of stairs to the roof, and no elevator that goes up to the baths.
Getting there
About ten minutes on foot from JR Beppu STN along the Kitahama seafront, or two minutes from the Kitahama bus stop, which the airport bus reaches in about forty-five minutes from Oita airport. Thirty parking spaces.
Beppu STN · JR Nippo line; the Sonic limited express runs in from Hakata
About 10 minutes toward the seafront.
Two minutes from the Beppu Kitahama bus stop; the airport bus takes about 45 minutes from Oita airport.
Where it is
Hakata STN
JR Sonic limited express 1 h 55
Kokura STN
Oita STN
✈Oita Airport
Hotel locationBeppu STN
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 bath page and the FAQ entry on 天空湯房 pricing)
Read on: seikaiso.com/hot_spring
Best for: A rooftop soak over Beppu Bay at a price worth paying twice
Twenty-seven rooms, eight Western and nineteen Japanese. The rooftop baths are up one flight of stairs with no elevator. General hours are 12:00 to 21:00. Day visitors can phone the same morning, with last start at 14:00 and no bookings after 15:00. Three sixth-floor rooms have a foot bath on the balcony reserved for guests in those rooms. The indoor view bath is a large shared bath, 15:00 to 01:00 and 05:00 to 09:30, and guests can also use the large baths at two sister inns about three minutes away at no charge.
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