Hoshino Resorts KAI Hakone
星野リゾート 界 箱根
Does Hoshino Resorts KAI Hakone allow tattoos? Yes!
Tattoos are welcome in the shared bath, with nothing to cover. Hoshino Resorts does reserve the right to refuse a bath if it would make other guests uncomfortable.
The rule is Hoshino Resorts' group-wide FAQ. It says the group doesn't restrict guests with tattoos, out of respect for other people's cultures, and that any refusal is at the ryokan's discretion rather than by size.
The bath
The water is Hakone-Yumoto Onsen, a salty spring from Mount Yusaka, the hill the ryokan faces. The shared bath is a half open-air room with one wall left open, so from the hinoki cypress tub you look at the mountain and down onto the Sukumo River, the sound you bathe to; a rest corner with drinks and ice pops waits after. The Hakone Gokochi rooms and the suites have an open-air bath of their own on the terrace, the suites with a stone-floored sitting room for after the bath.
The hotel
Thirty-four rooms, every one facing the Sukumo River, on the old Tokaido road where travelers once rested before and after the Hakone pass. The ryokan keeps a tea house in the courtyard as its lounge, and dinner is a kaiseki meal built around gyunabe, the beef hotpot Hakone took up for Western visitors in the Meiji era. Check-in is 2:30 p.m. and checkout is 11 a.m. Parking is free. One room takes a medium-sized dog.
Good to know
- Free shared taxi to Hakone-Yumoto Station at checkout, booked by noon the day before. There's none on arrival.
- The Orange Bus from Hakone-Yumoto stops at Kuzuhara (KAI Hakone) for ¥200, cash only, and the driver carries no change.
- Book an open-air-bath room if you want a tub to yourself: the Hakone Gokochi rooms or a suite.
Getting there
The Hakone Tozan bus is the Old Tokaido Road line toward Hatajuku or Motohakone-ko; the Orange Bus is the ryokans' Soun-dori line.
Hakone-Yumoto STN · Odakyu Romancecar, Hakone Tozan line
About 7 minutes by car, or the Hakone Tozan bus from stop 4 to Kuzuhara.
The Orange Bus (course B) from the tourist-information rotary also stops at Kuzuhara, ¥200 cash.
Where it is
- Hakone Freepass from ¥7,100 · 2 or 3 days from Shinjuku Worth it if you’re coming from Shinjuku and moving around Hakone. It covers the Odakyu line from Shinjuku and back, then unlimited rides on the Hakone Tozan railway, cable car, ropeway, lake boats and buses. The Romancecar seat fee is extra.
- Mt Fuji and Hakone day tour Lake Ashi’s torii, the pirate ship, Owakudani and Oshino Hakkai, from Tokyo.
- Shinkansen tickets Seats between any two stations, booked by date.
- Japan Rail Pass from ¥53,000 · 7, 14 or 21 days For a trip that takes in several regions by Shinkansen and JR lines.
What happens when you arrive
Check in and go to the bath. There's no seal to buy and nothing to mention at the front desk.
How we know
Confirmed from official site (the group's own FAQ; the property publishes no separate rule)
私たちは、お客様の文化背景や価値観を尊重し、刺青・タトゥーをされているお客様の利用を制限しておりません。しかしながら、すべてのお客様が快適にお過ごしいただけるよう、他のお客様が恐怖心を抱く可能性があると私たちが判断した場合、温泉・大浴場のご利用をお断りする場合がございます。
The operator’s own wording. Show it if anyone asks.
Best for: first-timers who want the shared bath, close to Hakone-Yumoto
Hoshino’s own FAQ puts no tattoo restriction on staying guests. The seal rule it publishes covers baths that non-staying visitors can also use, and this ryokan’s baths are for guests only.
Book your stay
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