Yokokawa, in the hills west of Shimoda Ryokan ★★★☆☆

Kannon Onsen

観音温泉

Does Kannon Onsen allow tattoos? In a private bath

Private bath only

The water here runs pH 9.5 and the estate bottles it, so every pot in the kitchen and every tub on the Pygmalion balconies is filled from the same three wells.

Thirty-six pages of kannon-onsen.com say nothing about tattoos, so the two shared bathhouses on the estate are not an answer for anyone with visible work. Book into the Pygmalion building, where every room has its own free-flowing open-air bath, or into the detached Ubusunatei, where rooms come with a cypress tub or an open-air tub of their own. The day-use bathhouses, Kannon Principle and Galatea, publish no rule either.

Where it is

Tokyo STN Odoriko, JR’s limited express 2 h 39 Atami STN Izukyu-Shimoda STN 6.6 km out Hotel location
Everything here is reached from Tokyo. The Odoriko limited express runs down the coast to Ito in 1 h 43 and on over the Izukyu line to Shimoda in 2 h 39, with no change. Shuzenji is the Shinkansen to Mishima and then the small Izuhakone Railway, about 1 h 40 in all.. Kannon Onsen · map data © OpenStreetMap contributors · open in Google Maps

Izukyu Discovery Pass One or two days on the Izukyu line between Ito and Izukyu-Shimoda. It does not cover the Odoriko’s limited express charge or the JR part of the ride from Tokyo, so it suits a stay that also stops at Ito or Izu-Kogen. Sold on Klook.

What happens when you arrive

Skip the shared baths and reserve the private one the way this page describes. Once the door is closed, the bath is yours.

How we know

Confirmed from official site — bath structure, not a tattoo policy (the ピグマリオン and 産土亭 pages, which put a source-fed bath in every room); no tattoo rule found on kannon-onsen.com

Read on: kannon-onsen.com/pyg/

Best for: Someone who wants water soft enough to drink coming out of the tub in their own room

Three of the estate’s own sources, pH 9.5, soft enough that the operator bottles it and cooks with it. Four lodging buildings: Pygmalion (every room with a source-fed open-air bath), Shoun-kan, the main building, and the detached Ubusunatei, which has cypress-bath and open-air-bath rooms and takes small dogs. Ubusunatei sits about 200 meters from the main building with a shuttle. Two day-use bathhouses on site, Kannon Principle and Galatea. The road in is steep and remote.

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