Tattoo friendly onsen in Nagato-Yumoto

SOIL Nagatoyumoto (SOIL Nagatoyumoto)

SOIL is the only operator in Nagato-Yumoto that says yes, and it says it in English as well as Japanese. Its sauna takes tattooed bathers; the one exclusion it draws is irezumi in the traditional Japanese style, which it refuses by name. The sauna is worn with swimwear, rentable for a fee, and it is open to people who are not staying. The line applies to the sauna, not to a hot spring bath, because the building does not run one.

タトゥーの方はご利用可能ですが、刺青（和彫り）のある方はご利用をお断りさせて頂いております。

Best for: A sauna on the river that says yes to tattoos in writing, in a town whose bathhouse says no.

Sauna is 1,500 yen on its own and free to hotel guests; 2,000 yen buys the sauna plus an Onto bathing ticket, which is worth ignoring if the Onto rule applies to you. No booking is needed for the sauna, except that 13:30 to 15:00 can be reserved as a private session by phone or email. Swimwear rents for a fee. 24 rooms, from a BOX single at 9,570 yen a bed to a river-view twin from 37,840 yen. The property calls its idea the three educations: nature, food and bathing.

Yumoto Kanko Hotel Saikyo

湯本観光ホテル西京

Saikyo publishes no tattoo rule, so the large bath, the open-air bath, the bubble bath and the sauna are all unknown. What it does publish is a detached wing, Saikyo-tei, of three rooms, each with its own open-air bath running free-flowing source water, and a reservable open-air bath in the main building. Book the wing or the reservable bath and the question does not arise.

全室庭園を眺める事ができます。全3室、源泉かけ流しの客室露天風呂を備えております。

Best for: A detached garden room with a free-flowing open-air tub, in a hotel that also has a bowling alley.

Three detached Saikyo-tei rooms, all looking onto the garden, all with a free-flowing source-water open-air bath; the grandest is a guest room of 12.5 plus 4.5 tatami with a living room and a twin bedroom. The main building also runs the Nagato-no-Sho wing, made to look like an old street. The hotel’s own summary lists a large bath, an open-air bath, a private reservable open-air bath, a sauna and a bubble bath. Day bathing 1,200 yen for adults, 600 yen for children. Non-smoking throughout, with smoking rooms on the first and third floors. There is a bowling alley, a karaoke room, a table-tennis corner, a foot-bath cafe and an aroma salon inside.

Bettei Otozure

別邸 音信

Otozure does not need a tattoo policy. All eighteen rooms, types A through G, have their own open-air bath, and the operator describes the view from a private open-air bath as the point of the place. There is also a spa wing, the Grande Spa, whose rule is not published, so treat that separately.

山懐に抱かれ、専用の露天風呂から眺める深い森と満天の星空。

Best for: Eighteen rooms, eighteen open-air baths, and a home bar in each.

Room types: A, a 10-tatami Japanese room with twin beds, terrace and open-air bath; B, a 10-tatami room with a living room; C, laid out for families; D, F and G, maisonettes with the open-air bath on the upper floor; E, an open-air bath and terrace room with a 6-tatami room and a double bedroom, workable for two generations. Rooms have a home bar and a home cinema. The inn shares a site and an operator with Otanisanso next door and lists Hagi ware through the building.

Otanisanso

大谷山荘

The biggest inn in Nagato-Yumoto says nothing about tattoos across 45 pages, so its large bath, lying bath, sauna and open-air bath are all unknown ground. The suites are not: Fukawa, Nagato, Akebono and the Terrace Suite each have their own open-air bath, and the inn states on its plan pages that the suite open-air baths run free-flowing source water.

Best for: A river-facing suite with a free-flowing open-air tub, in the inn that put this town on the map.

Suites: Fukawa on the river side, Nagato on the stream side, Akebono on the mountain side, and the Terrace Suite. 98 rooms in all, from about 27,800 yen. Day bathing 2,500 yen for adults, 1,250 yen for primary school children. The inn runs an astronomy dome and stargazing, and shares its operator with Bettei Otozure next door. Its own sightseeing pages point guests at Onto, which refuses tattoos, so do not take that recommendation as a signal.