Yuya Amane
湯屋 天音
Does Yuya Amane allow tattoos? In a private bath
At Yuya Amane you park beside your own bath room: eight private rooms, each with an indoor tub and an outdoor one, some ringed with boulders and one with a stone frog.
Yuya Amane publishes no tattoo rule. Eight of its baths are fully private rooms rented by the time slot, each with its own indoor and outdoor tub and parking by the door, so a tattooed bather never passes through the shared bath.
The bath
The water is a bicarbonate spring, the carbonated water the Nagayu area is known for, and the bathhouse says it comes from a source that never runs dry. It describes itself as keeping up Nagayu's old culture of long cure stays while making a place people today want to bathe. The shared bath is left plain on purpose, in the bathhouse's words a homely room where strangers end up talking, with an open-air tub beside the sound of the Serikawa river.
The eight private rooms are the main draw. Every one has an indoor tub and an outdoor tub of its own, and you can drive right up to your room, which the bathhouse says suits women and families with luggage. The bathhouse names a rock bath with a frog as its mascot and a cypress bath. The photos show tubs of pale stone and boulders filled with cloudy yellow-green water, timber-plank walls and glass doors opening onto a small walled terrace. A bath room is ¥1,500 for 45 minutes, ¥1,800 for an hour or ¥2,500 for 90 minutes. There are no phone bookings: bath rooms are taken at the counter.
The hotel
A day-use bathhouse in farmland on the upper Serikawa river, in the Kayagi district of Kuju-machi on the road from Nagayu toward Kuju. It has eight private bath rooms set apart with their own parking and one shared bath. Open 10 a.m. to 11 p.m., last entry 10 p.m.; closed every Tuesday and some other days. The shared bath costs ¥500 for adults and ¥300 for children of elementary school age and under. Towels and bath towels are ¥200 each, with toothbrushes, razors and hair ties for ¥100.
Good to know
- Park at your bath door; each private room has its own space.
- Every private room has two tubs, one indoors and one outdoors.
- Open late, until 11 p.m., with last entry at 10 p.m.
- Closed Tuesdays; the bathhouse posts other closures on its news page.
Getting there
The bathhouse puts itself about an hour from Oita city and about 20 minutes from central Taketa by car, and gives no public transport. From Oita take the JR Hohi line to Bungo-Taketa, about 1 hour 15 minutes, then a taxi. It stands on the Serikawa about 3 km west of the Nagayu bath town.
Bungo-Taketa STN · JR Hohi Line
Not walkable.
Taxi about 20 minutes from central Taketa by the bathhouse's count; no bus is named.
Where it is
- Kyushu Shinkansen 40 min
- Kyushu Odan limited express 2 hr 21 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 reserve a private bath by phone.
How we know
Bath layout confirmed, tattoo policy not published Checked on the official site (: the bath page lists eight private rooms, the about page the fees)
Read on: yuya-amane.com/?page_id=15
Best for: a private room of rock or cypress tubs you can drive right up to, open until 11 p.m.
Eight private bath rooms: ¥1,500 for 45 minutes, ¥1,800 for 60 or ¥2,500 for 90, per room. No phone bookings. Open 10 a.m. to 11 p.m., last entry 10 p.m.; closed Tuesdays and some other days. Shared bath ¥500 for adults. Towels and bath towels ¥200 each.
The map shows every hotel close by. We haven’t checked their tattoo rules: sleep there, bathe here. Search Booking.com instead
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For current hours and prices, see the official website.