Nasu Onsen Sanraku
那須温泉 山楽
Does Nasu Onsen Sanraku allow tattoos? In a private bath
Sanraku, open since 1923, draws its spring from beside the Nasu Imperial villa’s source and pipes it into the open-air tubs of its best rooms with nothing added or recirculated.
Sanraku publishes no tattoo rule. Its rooms with an open-air bath answer the question, so book one of those rather than a standard room.
The bath
The inn's own source rises in the Omaru ravine beside the spring that supplies the Nasu Imperial villa, fifteen outlets plus the Hachiman spring mixed, at 817 liters a minute and 64.6°C. The water is carried 5.4 km downhill by gravity and arrives at about 49.7°C, so the inn uses it without heating, recirculation or filtering. It is a simple spring (hypotonic, neutral, high temperature), faintly yellow-brown and slightly cloudy, and the inn lists it for chronic joint and muscle pain, cold sensitivity, poor circulation, digestion, mild high blood pressure, sleep trouble and fatigue.
Four kinds of special room have a bath of this water. The Cattleya suite, the inn's largest, with a 20-mat living room, has an open-air tub; the Fuyo room, redone in June 2017, has a half-open-air tub; the Keyaki and Nara modern rooms and the Kashiwa Japanese room have a garden open-air tub and a foot bath on the veranda. The inn drains, washes and refills the room tubs every day, as it does the large baths. Towels and amenities are in the room and at the large bath.
The shared baths are a large open-air bath of about 30 mats under maples, a smaller open-air bath with a gazebo, and granite indoor halls with wide windows; the two open-air baths swap between men and women. Hours are 3 p.m. to 1 a.m. and 5 to 10 a.m.
The hotel
Founded in 1923 and run today by Ken Hotels and Resorts, the inn says Emperor Showa, as crown prince, liked the view across the Nasu plain so much that he planned the Imperial villa nearby; Yosano Akiko wrote a poem here. The East wing has sukiya-style two-room Japanese rooms on two floors next to the baths; the West wing has view rooms, standard Japanese rooms and bed rooms, with the plain and Mount Yamizo from the upper floors. The menu is a monthly kaiseki (a multi-course Japanese meal), with a private teahouse for the special rooms and the East wing; the last dinner start is 7 p.m. Guests' dogs stay free at the pet hotel on the grounds. Check-in 3 p.m., check-out 10:30 a.m.
Good to know
- Room tubs are drained and refilled every day, with source water used as it arrives: no heating, no recirculation, no filtering.
- The two open-air baths swap sides, 3 p.m. to 1 a.m. and 5 to 10 a.m.; the big one sits under maples.
- One free shuttle a day from the West Exit of Nasushiobara Station, 2:40 p.m., back at 10:45 a.m., fully reserved.
- Your dog stays free at the inn's own pet hotel on the grounds, though not in the room.
Getting there
Take the Tohoku Shinkansen to Nasushiobara Station (1 hour 8 minutes from Tokyo on the Yamabiko). The inn's free shuttle leaves the West Exit at 2:40 p.m., one run a day, and returns at 10:45 a.m.; it is fully reserved, so choose it when booking or phone after. The Nasu-Shiobara highway bus (JR Bus Kanto) stops at Shin-Nasu, where a Sanraku sign points the way. Drivers find a free lot across the road for 50 cars.
Nasushiobara STN · JR Tohoku Shinkansen
Not walkable.
Free shuttle from the West Exit at 2:40 p.m., reserved; or the highway bus to Shin-Nasu.
Where it is
Hotel shuttle stop
- Tohoku Shinkansen 1 hr 8 min
- hotel's free shuttle
- 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
Bath layout confirmed, tattoo policy not published Checked on the official site ()
Best for: a private open-air tub of the same spring that feeds the Imperial villa
Four types of special room have an open-air or half-open-air bath: the west-wing garden rooms, the east-wing half-open-air rooms and the Cattleya suite among them. The spring is piped 5.4 km downhill by gravity and used with no heating, recirculation or filtering.
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