Tabi no Yado Yamatsubaki
旅の宿 山椿
Does Tabi no Yado Yamatsubaki allow tattoos? In a private bath
Yamatsubaki takes just two parties a night and gives each its own floor; the four baths, two open-air and two indoor, are taken by locking the door behind you.
Yamatsubaki publishes no tattoo rule. It takes only two parties a night, and all four of its baths, two open-air and two indoor family baths, are taken privately and locked from inside, so a tattooed guest never shares one.
The bath
The inn's source is a simple spring that comes out of the ground at 91.5°C. It runs straight through every tub, and the inn says it keeps you warm long after you get out and is good for muscle pain, neuralgia and the skin. Sujiyu took its name, the inn explains, from a bath that loosens the muscles.
All four baths are private. Two are open-air, for stars or snow, and two are indoor family baths with tubs big enough for several people; lock the door from inside and the bath is yours. The bath page gives hours of 3 p.m. to 9:30 a.m., and the home page says you may bathe at any hour; either way, with only two parties in the house you will rarely wait. The open-air baths have handrails. The photo shows an open-air pool ringed with rounded grey boulders and flagstones, a steel handrail along a cedar wall, a bamboo spout, and a garden of shrubs and trees behind a dark fence.
The hotel
Four rooms, of which the inn books only two a night, one party to a floor: a universal-design suite of about 72 square meters on the ground floor, finished in spring 2022, with a living room, bedroom, dining room and bath; a Japanese-Western room of about 68 square meters renovated in June 2026; and two Japanese rooms of nine to twelve mats upstairs, where you lay out your own futon. The lobby has an irori hearth. Dinner is a kaiseki (a multi-course Japanese meal) of local food with Bungo beef and a kamameshi rice pot, served in a private room. The whole inn is non-smoking. Check in between 3 and 6 p.m.; check out by 10 a.m.
Good to know
- Two parties a night, each with a floor of its own.
- Lock the bath door from inside; all four baths are private.
- No shops near the inn, so buy what you need on the way.
- The ground-floor suite is step-free, built in 2022 to universal design.
Getting there
Leave the JR Kyudai line at Bungo-Nakamura; the inn says a bus runs for each train and takes about 40 minutes to the Sujiyu Onsen stop, then it is about 5 minutes on foot. By car, about 25 minutes from the Kokonoe interchange of the Oita Expressway; use winter tires in the cold months.
Bungo-Nakamura STN · JR Kyudai Main Line, then the bus to Sujiyu Onsen
About 5 minutes from the Sujiyu Onsen bus stop.
Bus about 40 minutes, timed to each train.
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 says all four baths are private)
Best for: a whole floor to yourselves and four private baths shared with only one other party
Four private baths (two open-air, two indoor family baths), all free-flowing, 3 p.m. to 9:30 a.m.; lock the door from inside. The home page calls them open all night. Only two bookings a night across four rooms; the inn gives each party a floor. The open-air baths have handrails. Lay out your own futon in the second-floor Japanese rooms. No shops nearby. Bathing tax ¥150 a person.
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