Sanso Yamanoiro
山荘 やまの彩
Does Sanso Yamanoiro allow tattoos? In a private bath
Every bath at Yamanoiro sits on the cliff edge, the inn says, and seven of its eight row-house rooms have one of their own, from a hexagonal cut-stone tub to cypress and round boulders.
Yamanoiro publishes no tattoo rule. Seven of its eight rooms have their own bath of spring water, most of them open-air, and its three other baths are run as private family baths for staying guests, so a tattooed guest need not share a bath.
The bath
The inn draws Sujiyu's spring, a simple and sodium chloride water that comes out too hot to bathe in, so it adds water; it runs free-flowing and is listed for neuralgia, muscle and joint pain, stiff joints, fatigue and rheumatism.
Seven of the eight rooms have their own bath. Kisumire, opened in April 2018, has a hexagonal cut-stone open-air tub; Yamaboshi a heavy cut-stone one; Suikazura a cypress one lit by bamboo lanterns at night; Kumazasa an open-air bath of round boulders beside a small garden; Oyamarenge a half-open-air cypress bath one floor below its twin room; Shakunage a half-open-air stone bath behind a board fence, reached through the window. Tsuwabuki has an indoor bath with a skylight. The photo of Kisumire shows the tub's dark stone rim, a bamboo spout and a bamboo fence with spring woods behind.
The three other baths are run as private family baths for staying guests: the large rock open-air bath Yamasowa-no-yu with a lie-down ledge and a view of the Kuju range, the dim cypress half-open-air Saezuri-no-yu, and the small Hogure-yu. Day visitors may sometimes hire one at ¥800 a person; call first.
The hotel
Eight rooms in long, row-house style cottages joined by roofed walkways, each built a little differently: Japanese rooms of up to ten mats for two to five, one Western twin up a flight of stairs, one Japanese-Western room, and one plain room with no bath. Dinner is grilled at an irori hearth from local, seasonal food, with smoke from the kamado stove in the halls. The inn says it is not part of the Kyushu recovery travel discount.
Good to know
- Seven of eight rooms have a bath; only Kobushi does not.
- The shared baths become private for staying guests until check-out.
- The bus stops a minute away, at Hizen-yu on the Makinoto Pass line.
- Oyamarenge takes no infants; its bath is down a flight of stairs.
Getting there
Take the JR Kyudai line to Bungo-Nakamura, then the bus bound for Makinoto Pass, and get off at Hizen-yu; the inn is a minute's walk from the stop. The inn gives no bus minutes; the Sujiyu tourist association puts Bungo-Nakamura to Sujiyu at about 50 minutes. Drivers allow about 30 minutes from the Kokonoe interchange.
Bungo-Nakamura STN · JR Kyudai Main Line, then the bus toward Makinoto Pass
1 minute from the Hizen-yu bus stop.
Bus about 50 minutes from Bungo-Nakamura by the tourist association's count.
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
Use the bath in your room.
How we know
Bath layout confirmed, tattoo policy not published Checked on the official site (: the rooms page and the hot spring page)
Best for: a cliff-edge cottage with an open-air tub of its own and dinner cooked over an irori hearth
Five rooms have an open-air bath, one a half-open-air cypress bath and one a half-open-air stone bath; Tsuwabuki has an indoor bath with a skylight; Kobushi has none. The spring is too hot to use as it comes, so the inn adds water. Shared baths: the large rock open-air bath Yamasowa-no-yu and the cypress half-open-air Saezuri-no-yu, run privately for staying guests until check-out; the small Hogure-yu is a private family bath until 10 a.m. Day visitors may hire a bath as a family bath at ¥800 a person on some days. Oyamarenge (twin) takes no infants.
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