Koden, on the wooded slope above the town along the Kakisaka stream Ryokan

Gero Kanko Hotel Honkan

湯あそびの宿 下呂観光ホテル本館

Does Gero Kanko Hotel Honkan allow tattoos? In a private bath

Private bath only

Seven private open-air baths are strung along the Kakisaka stream below the hotel, one hollowed from a Hida boulder and one shaped like a tea kettle, and two more open free to guests between six and ten in the morning.

No tattoo rule is published here, so the two shared baths are a question mark. The reason to come anyway is the count of baths you take alone: seven reservable open-air baths and twelve rooms with an open-air bath of their own, all of them on natural spring water by the hotel’s own statement.

Where it is

Nagoya STN Hida, JR’s limited express on the Takayama line 1 h 50 Takayama STN Hotel location
Gero STN
Nagoya is the door, 1 h 40 from Tokyo and 50 minutes from Osaka on the Shinkansen. The Hida limited express runs up the Hida river valley to Gero in 1 h 50 and on to Takayama, where the Nohi Bus for Hirayu and the other Okuhida villages leaves from beside the station.. Gero Kanko Hotel Honkan · map data © OpenStreetMap contributors · open in Google Maps

JR Takayama-Hokuriku Area Tourist Pass Five days for 19,800 yen on JR trains between Nagoya, Gero, Takayama and Toyama, with six reserved seats, which covers the Hida from Nagoya to Gero both ways. Worth it if Takayama, Shirakawa-go or Kanazawa is on the same trip. 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, not a tattoo policy (geroyado.co.jp/honkan/spa.html). Nothing on the site addresses tattoos.

Read on: geroyado.co.jp/honkan/spa.html

Best for: Choosing between seven private open-air baths, each cut from a different material

The seven reservable baths are 3,080 yen for 45 minutes, and some plans include one free. They include a Shigaraki ceramic tub, a bath hollowed out of a Hida mountain boulder, a tea-kettle-shaped tub and the Ryokufu bath beside a stand of maples. Two more open-air baths in the detached block, Wakaba and Momiji, are free to guests between 06:00 and 10:00. The hotel says it draws about 83 tonnes of source water a day, at pH 9.18 and 55°C at source.

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