Oku-Atagawa Narashino-no-Sato Gyokusui
奥熱川 奈良偲の里 玉翠
Does Oku-Atagawa Narashino-no-Sato Gyokusui allow tattoos? In a private bath
Gyokusui has kept the same 90°C spring in the hills behind Atagawa for more than a century. All 13 rooms have a free-flowing tub, and each party is given 40 minutes alone in a rock pool walled in by bamboo.
The inn publishes no tattoo rule. Each of its 13 rooms has its own free-flowing spring bath, half-open-air or fully open-air, and every room also gets 40 free minutes in the private open-air rock bath in the bamboo grove. A tattooed guest can bathe well here without entering the shared halls; ask the inn before using those.
The bath
All 13 rooms have a spring bath of their own, fed straight from the source and left to overflow. The second-floor Japanese-Western rooms overlooking the garden come in three types, each with a half-open-air tub; one is a corner special room and one adds a terrace. The detached room Muro faces both the garden and the bamboo grove and has two open-air tubs, one in cypress and one in Izu stone. Another room pairs an open-air tub with an indoor bath of blue Izu stone, a place to cool off and a small garden of its own.
On top of that, each room is given 40 minutes free in Obitoke, the private open-air bath: a rock pool under the open sky, ringed by bamboo. You fix the time when you check in, and the inn sets the slots so that every party gets a turn.
The inn's own spring comes up at about 90°C, and it has employed a bath keeper to bring it to a comfortable temperature by hand since it was founded 108 years ago. The two shared halls, Kaifu for men and Manyo for women, are indoor baths lined with blue Izu stone and open to the hillside view. The inn also sells its own bath amenities under the name Yumoribito.
The hotel
A 13-room inn in Japanese modern style, set among gardens and bamboo in the hills of Oku-Atagawa, in business for over a century. The inn's idea is rooms that sit inside the landscape instead of merely looking at it: birdsong, the smell of grass and the night sky from the tub. It offers esthetic and acupuncture treatments. Reservations are taken by phone or through booking sites, and a line for staying guests answers from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Good to know
- Forty free minutes in the bamboo-grove bath for every room, reserved at check-in.
- Every room tub is free-flowing, from a source of about 90°C cooled by hand.
- The shuttle runs every 30 minutes from 2:25 to 4:55 p.m.; phone with your arrival time.
Getting there
Take the Odoriko limited express from Tokyo to Izu-Atagawa Station, or the Shinkansen to Atami and change to the Ito and Izukyu lines. The inn is about 5 minutes by car from the station, up in the hills. Its shuttle bus runs every 30 minutes from 2:25 to 4:55 p.m.; give your arrival time when you book or once you know it, and the inn assigns the nearest run. Outside those hours, take a taxi.
Izu-Atagawa STN · Izukyu Line (Odoriko limited express from Tokyo)
Not walkable.
Shuttle every 30 minutes from 2:25 to 4:55 p.m., about 5 minutes; tell the inn your train.
Where it is
Izu-Atagawa STN
- Shinkansen tickets Seats between any two stations, booked by date.
- JR Tokyo Wide Pass ¥16,000 · 3 days Three days of JR East trains from Tokyo, and the Izukyu line from Ito on to Izu-Atagawa and Izu-Inatori.
- Izukyu Discovery Pass Worth it if your stay also stops at Ito or Shimoda. It covers two or three days in a row on the Izukyu line between Ito and Izukyu-Shimoda, Izu-Atagawa and Izu-Inatori included, and a vacant ordinary seat on the Odoriko. It doesn’t cover the JR part of the ride from Tokyo.
- Mt Omuro and the Izu coast day trip The Mt Omuro lift, the Atami beach road, the Jogasaki cliffs and Ito’s harbor.
- 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
Use the bath in your room, or reserve a private bath.
How we know
Bath layout confirmed, tattoo policy not published Checked on the official site: (the rooms page says all 13 rooms have a free-flowing spring bath; the hot spring page gives the free 40-minute private open-air bath)
Best for: couples after a quiet inland inn where the bath in the room is the main one
The private open-air bath Obitoke is free for 40 minutes a room, with the slot fixed at check-in so that every party gets one. The detached room Muro has two open-air tubs, one cypress and one Izu stone. Trip.com lists the inn as adults only.
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