Ryokan Shirataki
旅館 白滝
Does Ryokan Shirataki allow tattoos? In a private bath
Ryokan Shirataki gives its guests four family baths free, one with Sujiyu’s trademark falling-water shower, and every one of its ten rooms faces the stream.
Shirataki publishes no tattoo rule. It keeps four family baths that guests take privately and free, two of them open around the clock, and two rooms with a roofed open-air bath of their own, so a tattooed guest can skip the men’s and women’s baths.
The bath
The water is a clear sodium chloride spring, run straight from the source. The inn says it holds heat well and tightens the skin, and lists it for nerve pain, muscle and joint pain, stiff shoulders, fatigue, motor paralysis, stiff joints, sprains, cold sensitivity, chronic digestive trouble and hemorrhoids. There is a men's and a women's open-air bath, open 5 a.m. to midnight.
The four family baths are free to staying guests, as often as you like: Yasuragi-no-yu, Fureai-no-yu, Miharashi-no-yu and Ikoi-no-yu. Fureai-no-yu has a falling-water shower like the one that made Sujiyu's name. They open 5 a.m. to midnight, and Yasuragi and Miharashi stay open all night. The changing rooms have no towels, so take one from your room or borrow one free at the desk. The photos show square tubs rimmed in rough dark stone, a pipe spout, walls of weathered vertical boards and a window full of green leaves.
Two rooms have their own roofed open-air bath outside the room, facing the stream, open 24 hours.
The hotel
Ten rooms, all ten-mat Japanese rooms facing the stream and sleeping up to five, two of them on the ground floor with the half-open-air bath; those two cannot have dinner served in the room. Dinner is a country kaiseki (a multi-course Japanese meal) of Bungo beef, river fish grilled with salt, mountain vegetables and house-made sesame tofu, served from 6 p.m. in a farmhouse-style hall divided into private spaces; breakfast 8 to 9 a.m. Check-in 3 to 10 p.m. (by 6 p.m. with dinner), check-out by 10 a.m.
Good to know
- Four family baths, free, two of them open all night.
- Bring a towel to the bath; the desk lends them free.
- Dinner starts at 6 p.m. for everyone, so arrive before then.
- The community bus meets each train at Bungo-Nakamura, the inn says.
Getting there
From Bungo-Nakamura on the JR Kyudai line, the inn says, a bus to Sujiyu Onsen runs for each train and takes about 50 minutes. The inn is in the village. It does not usually pick up, but in snow it will collect guests from a set parking spot.
Bungo-Nakamura STN · JR Kyudai Main Line, then the Kokonoe town community bus to Sujiyu Onsen
Not walkable.
Bus about 50 minutes, timed to the trains; pickup only in snow.
Where it is
Sujiyu Onsen bus stop
- Yufuin no Mori 1 hr 47 min
- JR Kyudai line 13 min
- Kokonoe community bus 50 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 Kuju is part of 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
Skip the shared baths and use one of the private baths. No reservation needed.
How we know
Bath layout confirmed, tattoo policy not published Checked on the official site (: the hot spring page and the rooms page)
Best for: four free family baths, one with Sujiyu's famous falling-water bath, and a riverside room
Family baths Yasuragi-no-yu, Fureai-no-yu (with a falling-water shower), Miharashi-no-yu and Ikoi-no-yu: free, 5 a.m. to midnight, with Yasuragi and Miharashi open 24 hours. Bring a towel from the room or borrow one free at the desk. Two rooms have a roofed open-air bath over the stream, open 24 hours; the room baths cannot have meals served in the room. Dinner starts for everyone at 6 p.m.; check in by then. No pickup, except from a set spot when snow closes the road. Cards accepted.
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