Kinugawa Kanaya Hotel
鬼怒川金谷ホテル
Does Kinugawa Kanaya Hotel allow tattoos? In a private bath
At Kinugawa Kanaya Hotel the open-air tubs are cut from Towada stone, and the terraces that hold them are half again as wide as a standard room’s.
Kanaya publishes no tattoo rule for its Kodai Hinoki and Shiki-no-yu baths. Five room types come with onsen water of their own: three with an open-air tub of Towada stone on the terrace, two with an indoor view bath of marble or cypress by a big window.
What the hotel says about its baths
お部屋で温泉をお楽しみいただけるのは 下記5タイプの客室です。
The operator’s own wording.
The bath
The water is an alkaline simple spring, colorless and odorless, which the hotel says is kind to the skin and good for neuralgia, sprains and muscle and joint pain. Its spring page dates the source to 1691, on Nikko shrine land. There are two halls, and they swap by time of day. Kodai Hinoki-no-yu is the classic one, set in a garden, with an indoor tub of cypress the hotel dates at about 2,000 years old, an open-air bath of white granite and a wide sauna paneled in European paulownia; men use it 14:00 to 1:00 and women 4:00 to 10:00. Shiki-no-yu faces the gorge: a marble indoor bath, two open-air tubs each cut from a single slab of white granite, a mist-type low-temperature sauna the hotel calls a thermarium, and a gazebo for cooling off; women 14:00 to 1:00, men 4:00 to 10:00. Seasonal baths of iris or yuzu appear through the year. Towels and toiletries are stocked in the changing rooms. The page says nothing about day bathing.
Five room types have onsen water of their own. Three have an open-air tub of Towada stone on a terrace half again as wide as a standard room's: the Club Floor Western suite, the Upgraded Japanese-Western room and the Upgraded Japanese room. The Upgraded Japanese-Western rooms on the fourth floor were rebuilt around that tub, 66 m² for two, with a wine cellar and two Simmons beds. The John Kanaya Suite and the Club Floor Japanese-Western suite have an indoor view bath of marble or cypress by a big window instead.
The hotel
The hotel styles itself the valley villa of John Kanaya and belongs to the Kanaya group, whose roots are in the Nikko Kanaya Hotel. All seven room types have a wood-deck terrace behind pillarless floor-to-ceiling glass facing the river; the Club Floor suites and the standard Japanese-Western rooms have no onsen tub. Guests choose from three pillows, and a room massage can be ordered. Dinner is one of two Kanaya kaiseki menus, Japanese-Western at Dining John Kanaya or teppanyaki at Teppan Zendokoro Kanaya, with wagyu and seasonal fish. There are a cigar salon and a spa treatment salon.
Good to know
- The two halls swap by the clock, not the day: men get the cypress hall from 14:00 and the gorge hall from 4:00 in the morning, women the reverse.
- Terraces on the open-air-tub rooms are 1.5 times the usual width, by the hotel's own measure.
- Towels wait in the changing rooms, along with razors, hair ties, cotton and a drink server.
- Two hours from central Tokyo, which is the whole of the hotel's own access claim in text; the map is an image.
Getting there
Take a Tobu limited express (Kinu, Spacia or Revaty) from Asakusa to Kinugawa-Onsen Station, about 2 hours; the hotel puts the trip from central Tokyo at two hours. The hotel is in the Ohara district close to the station, and its site shows the walking route only as a map image with no stated minutes. The hotel's free-dial reservation line answers 10:00 to 17:00 daily.
Kinugawa-Onsen STN · Tobu Kinugawa line (limited expresses from Asakusa)
The hotel publishes no walking time; its access page shows the route only as a map image.
No shuttle mentioned; the access map is an image.
Where it is
Kinugawa-Onsen STN
- Shinkansen tickets Seats between any two stations, booked by date.
- JR Tokyo Wide Pass ¥16,000 · 3 days Worth it if you’re also traveling around Tokyo on JR.
- Nikko Pass All Area ¥8,000 · 4 days Worth it if you’re coming from Asakusa. It covers the Tobu line from Asakusa and back, and Tobu trains and buses around Kinugawa and Nikko.
- Nikko classic day tour Toshogu Shrine, the Irohazaka hairpins, Lake Chuzenji and Kegon Falls, from Tokyo.
- 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 in-room bath page)
Best for: A splurge night with a Towada-stone onsen tub on the terrace over the river
Open-air tub rooms: Club Floor Suite (Western), Upgraded Japanese-Western and Upgraded Japanese rooms, 露天風呂付. View-bath rooms: John Kanaya Suite and Club Floor Japanese-Western Suite. The fourth-floor Upgraded Japanese-Western rooms were rebuilt with a private natural-onsen tub (プライベート天然温泉露天風呂). Standard rooms have no onsen tub.
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