Nasu Hoshi no Akari
ぬくもりに心なごむ湯宿 星のあかり
Does Nasu Hoshi no Akari allow tattoos? In a private bath
Each of Hoshi no Akari’s thirteen rooms has its own open-air tub of bicarbonate spring water, and the inn’s FAQ tells tattooed guests to bathe there rather than in the large bath.
The inn’s FAQ says a guest with a tattoo cannot use the large bath and should use the open-air bath in the room. Every room has one, so the room bath is always there.
The bath
Every room has its own open-air tub, and that is the bath a tattooed guest uses. The room tubs are a sodium bicarbonate and sulfate spring, which the inn calls a beauty bath for its soft feel on the skin; the spring is drawn at Shiobara Shiki-no-sato in Nasushiobara city, and the FAQ says the room tubs are recirculated and heated, not flowing. The tubs are rock, hinoki cypress, granite or Shigaraki ceramic depending on the room. Second-floor rooms look over the Kanto Plain (Seiten, Kengyu, Orihime) or toward the Nasu range (Seiun, Myojo, Hoshizora); ground-floor rooms open onto the garden (Subaru, Seirin, Nanaya) or sit near the large bath (Seigansei, Hoshikage, Tsukihoshi). The Shosei suite has a rock open-air tub in its own garden and an indoor bath as well.
The large bath on the ground floor is a different spring, the milky sulfur water of Nasu Onsen, which the inn says flows straight from the source with nothing added; its open-air section has a high-concentration carbonated tub and a microbubble tub. The inn publishes no hours for it. There is no day-use bathing and no bathing after check-out.
The hotel
A Yummy Group inn of 13 rooms, seven downstairs and six up, with no elevator but chair lifts on two staircases. Twelve are designer Japanese rooms with futons and an open-air tub; the Shosei suite adds an 8-mat room, a tea room and a bedroom with beds for up to six. Dinner is a creative Japanese kaiseki (a multi-course Japanese meal) with Tochigi wagyu seared on lava stone, at 6 or 6:30 p.m. in a dining room whose blinds drop to make private booths; breakfast is a Japanese basket meal at 8, 8:30 or 9 a.m. No room meals. Karaoke, a playroom, a shop and a paid ping-pong room. Check-in 3 p.m., check-out 11 a.m. No pets.
Good to know
- Four tub materials across the rooms, rock, hinoki, granite or Shigaraki ceramic; the inn says the room tubs are recirculated and heated.
- The large bath is a different spring: milky sulfur water from the source, with a carbonated tub and a microbubble tub outdoors.
- Free pickup from the Shin-Nasu or Ikken-chaya bus stop, booked ahead; the Kanto bus from the station is free once a day with a booking.
- No elevator, but chair lifts on two staircases and one wheelchair to borrow.
Getting there
Take the Tohoku Shinkansen to Nasushiobara Station (1 hour 8 minutes from Tokyo on the Yamabiko), then the Kanto bus toward Nasu-Yumoto to the Shin-Nasu or Ikken-chaya stop. The inn says one ride a day on that bus is free for guests who book ahead through the inn, from Nasushiobara or Kuroiso Station. From the stop the inn's free car picks you up; book it ahead too. There are 13 parking spaces. The inn gives no taxi figures.
Nasushiobara STN · JR Tohoku Shinkansen, then the Kanto bus toward Nasu-Yumoto
Not walkable.
Kanto bus to Shin-Nasu or Ikken-chaya (free once a day with a booking), then the inn's free pickup, booked.
Where it is
Shin-Nasu bus stop
- Tohoku Shinkansen 1 hr 8 min
- Kanto Jidosha bus 39 min
- Shinkansen tickets Seats between any two stations, booked by date.
- JR Tokyo Wide Pass ¥16,000 · 3 days Worth it if Nasu is one stop in a longer Kanto trip.
- 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
Confirmed from official site (the inn’s FAQ)
刺青が入っていても大浴場は利用できます？ご入浴いただけません。客室露天風呂をご利用くださいませ。
This is the rule for the shared baths. It doesn’t apply to the private baths.
Best for: a room with its own open-air hot spring bath looking out over the Kanto Plain
The room baths run on a sodium bicarbonate spring; the large bath uses a different, milky sulfur spring. Second-floor rooms face either the Kanto Plain or the Nasu peaks.
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