Bessho Onsen, next door to Kitamuki Kannon Ryokan ★★★☆☆

Kashiwaya Honten

かしわや本店

Does Kashiwaya Honten allow tattoos? In a private bath

Private bath only

The inn that stands beside Kitamuki Kannon gives every guest one free turn in its private bath, an open-air tub joined to a cypress one, and four of its rooms have an open-air bath of their own besides.

No tattoo rule is published. Four rooms have their own open-air bath and two more have an indoor bath, and every staying guest can also take the private bath, an open-air tub paired with a cypress one, for 40 minutes at no charge. Ask at the front desk; turns go first come at check-in, and the inn asks you to get in touch ahead if you want a set time.

Where it is

Tokyo STN Ueda STN change to Ueda Electric Railway · 27 min Hokuriku Shinkansen 85 min Hotel location
Bessho-Onsen STN
Everything here is reached from Tokyo. Karuizawa is an hour on the Hokuriku Shinkansen and Echigo-Yuzawa 79 minutes on the Joetsu Shinkansen, both with no change. Kawaguchiko is the Fuji Excursion from Shinjuku, about two hours, and Isawa the Kaiji, an hour and forty. The Nagano towns change once: Bessho at Ueda, Nozawa at Iiyama, and Yudanaka, Hakuba and Myoko at Nagano.. Kashiwaya Honten · map data © OpenStreetMap contributors · open in Google Maps

JR East Pass Covers the Hokuriku Shinkansen from Tokyo to Ueda. The Ueda Electric Railway on to Bessho is a private line and is paid separately; the JR Tokyo Wide Pass stops short of Ueda. 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, bath structure rather than a tattoo policy (the inn’s overview page counts the bath rooms and its spa page sets out the free private bath)

Read on: kashiwayahonten.com/overview/

Best for: A room with an open-air bath, plus a second private bath included in the price

Rooms by bath: 4 with an open-air bath (2 of them with beds), 2 with an indoor bath, 5 with a shower only, and a newer suite with dining room, Western bedroom and kitchen island. The shared baths are a large rock bath and two cypress baths that change between men and women at 20:00 and again in the morning. Water is Bessho No. 4 source, 50.9°C. Check-in 15:00, last check-in 19:00. Free pick-up from Bessho-Onsen Station. Women may choose a colored yukata. The ryokan association lists it as 130 years old.

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