Ryokan Yayanoyu
旅館 ややの湯
Does Ryokan Yayanoyu allow tattoos? In a private bath
Yayanoyu has six rooms and six open-air tubs of Ueki spring water fed straight from the source, several of them set across a small garden from the room.
Yayanoyu publishes no tattoo rule. Every one of its six rooms has its own open-air bath of spring water straight from the source, so a tattooed guest bathes in private for the whole stay.
The bath
There are no shared baths to worry about: each of the six rooms has its own open-air bath, filled with Ueki spring water straight from the source. The rooms differ. Futata has two rooms of 8 and 10 mats and a roomy bath. Jionji and Yamashiro are 12-mat rooms with a small garden between the room and the bath; Yamashiro's is a rock bath among greenery. Ashihara has a 10-mat room, a shower room and its own changing area. Hirashima looks across a small garden to a rock bath, and Kamura, the smallest at 9.5 mats, has a bath surrounded by plants. Every room has a nanobubble shower head.
The water is a simple sulfur spring, weakly alkaline at around pH 8.0. The inn says it feels thick and soft, like lotion, and that it softens old skin and leaves it smooth, which is why Ueki is called a beauty spring. It lists neuralgia, muscle pain, frozen shoulder, stiff joints, bruises, poor circulation, fatigue and chronic skin trouble among its uses. Ueki Onsen used to be called Hirashima Onsen, a name one of the rooms keeps.
The hotel
A six-room inn for adults, which calls itself a hideaway with a nostalgic feel close to the city. Rooms are Japanese style, with colored yukata (a light cotton robe) to choose from, work clothes, bamboo toothbrushes and combs, a capsule coffee machine and a television that streams Netflix. Dinner mixes Japanese and Western cooking, built on organic vegetables from a contracted local farm and seafood sent straight from Amakusa, with sake from a local brewery and natural wines; it is served in a dining room the inn describes as an old farmhouse. Breakfast is Japanese.
Good to know
- Your bath, all night, fed straight from the source in every room.
- Adults only, with check-in at 3 p.m. and check-out at 10 a.m.
- Free parking for 50 cars.
Getting there
From Kumamoto Station, take a bus about 10 minutes to the Kumamoto Sakuramachi bus terminal. There, board a bus bound for Yamaga Onsen and ride about 50 minutes to Ueki Onsen Iriguchi. The inn is about 20 minutes on foot from that stop. A rental car from Kumamoto Station takes about 45 minutes.
Kumamoto STN · Bus bound for Yamaga Onsen from the Kumamoto Sakuramachi bus terminal
About 20 minutes from the Ueki Onsen Iriguchi stop.
Bus about 10 minutes to Sakuramachi, then about 50 minutes to Ueki Onsen Iriguchi; about 45 minutes by car.
Where it is
- Kyushu Shinkansen 40 min
- JR Kagoshima line 20 min
- Shinkansen tickets Seats between any two stations, booked by date.
- JR Kyushu Rail Pass from ¥12,000 · 3, 5 or 7 consecutive days Worth it if Kikuchi or Ueki is one stop in a longer Kyushu trip by train.
- 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
There's no shared bath here, so every bath you use is private.
How we know
Bath layout confirmed, tattoo policy not published Checked on the official site: (the rooms page and the concept page)
Best for: a couple who want their own open-air spring tub, a small garden and dinner of organic vegetables and Amakusa fish
All six rooms have a private open-air bath fed straight from the source; there is no other bath to book. An adults’ inn. Check-in 3 p.m., check-out 10 a.m. Non-smoking throughout. Free parking for 50 cars.
Book your stay
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