Oyado Kawasemi
御宿かわせみ
Does Oyado Kawasemi allow tattoos? In a private bath
Kawasemi, a twelve-room inn named for the kingfisher, puts a private open-air bath on each of its six ground-floor rooms, some looking onto a pond with ducks and a small waterfall.
Kawasemi publishes no tattoo rule, and it has no private bath to rent. Six of its twelve rooms, all on the ground floor, have their own open-air bath of Iizaka spring water, so guests in those rooms can bathe without using the shared baths.
The bath
The water is Iizaka's mildly alkaline simple spring at 62°C, listed for nerve, muscle and joint pain, bruises, poor circulation and fatigue. The inn reminds guests that Iizaka was once called Sabako-no-yu and was counted among the three great springs of the north with Naruko and Akiu. It adds water to the spring because the source runs so hot.
The men's and women's large baths, each laid out differently, are open 24 hours and look onto a tended garden. Past the rock open-air bath is a far-infrared kamakura sauna kept at a low 75°C, open 3 to 10 p.m. and 6 to 10 a.m.
The six ground-floor rooms are the reason to come for a private soak. Each has its own open-air bath of spring water. The suite and junior suite face a bamboo grove where, the inn says, pheasants sometimes wander through. The detached villas, reached by a tatami corridor, open onto the garden: the suite villa looks over the pond, and of the two junior suite villas one faces the pond and one a small stream. The indoor bath in each room is ordinary hot water.
The hotel
Kawasemi has twelve rooms in sukiya style, each built differently, and every room now has dining chairs and a table instead of floor seating. The six upstairs rooms look toward the Azuma mountains and the Surikami River. Dinner and breakfast are served in the room, with a choice of start times, and the kitchen adjusts dishes for allergies or dislikes if told when booking. There is a small library, a salon for after the bath, and a shop of glass and ceramics. The whole inn is non-smoking.
Good to know
- Book a ground-floor room, since only those six have an open-air bath.
- Free pickup from Iizaka-Onsen Station, from 7:30 a.m. and until 6 p.m.; phone from Fukushima Station when you change trains.
- Bookings open six months ahead on the first of each month, by the inn's own reckoning.
Getting there
From Fukushima Station, take the Fukushima Kotsu Iizaka line to Iizaka-Onsen Station, about 20 minutes by the inn's count. Phone the inn while changing at Fukushima, and its car meets the train at Iizaka-Onsen Station; the drive takes about 10 minutes. Pickups run from 7:30 a.m. until 6 p.m., and the car takes guests back to the station on departure. By car it is about 10 minutes from the Fukushima-Iizaka interchange.
Iizaka-Onsen STN · Fukushima Kotsu Iizaka line
Not walkable by the inn's directions.
Free inn car from the station, about 10 minutes, 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Where it is
Iizaka-Onsen STN
- Tohoku Shinkansen 1 hr 35 min from Tokyo
- Iizaka line 23 min
- Shinkansen tickets Seats between any two stations, booked by date.
- JR East Pass from ¥35,000 · 5 or 10 consecutive days Covers the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Fukushima, the Yamabiko or the Tsubasa.
- 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.
How we know
Bath layout confirmed, tattoo policy not published Checked on the official site (the rooms pages and the FAQ);
Best for: couples who want a spring-water tub on a garden pond and a long dinner served in the room
Six ground-floor rooms with an open-air bath: a suite and a junior suite facing a bamboo grove, a detached suite villa and two detached junior suite villas facing the pond or a stream, and a maisonette suite villa. The FAQ says the room open-air baths and the large baths are hot spring water, with water added because the source is very hot; the indoor baths in the rooms are not spring water. The six second-floor rooms have no open-air bath. All meals in the room (groups of five or more eat in a small hall). Check-in 3 p.m., check-out 11 a.m. The whole inn is non-smoking. The glass museum on site is closed for now.
Book your stay
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