Hoshokaku
飛騨高山温泉 宝生閣
Does Hoshokaku allow tattoos? In a private bath
Hoshokaku stands on the old Takayama Castle hill, and its eleven fifth-floor rooms each have a ceramic or stone tub on a terrace looking over the town, filled with heated plain water.
Hoshokaku publishes no tattoo rule. Eleven rooms on the fifth floor have their own open-air tub, so a tattooed guest can bathe without using the shared baths. The inn says plainly that these room tubs are not hot spring water: its spring feeds only the stone open-air bath in the shared bath hall, and there is no private bath to reserve.
The bath
The eleven open-air rooms were renovated in spring 2010 and sit on the top floor. The tub stands outside on a wooden terrace, either a round Shigaraki ceramic pot or a stone bath, and the inn lights it at night so guests can bathe above the town's lights. A shower booth opens beside the tub. The Japanese rooms are wide tatami rooms; the Japanese-Western rooms add beds and a sofa. Drinks in the room refrigerator are free.
The water in these tubs is ordinary heated water. The inn's spring, a weakly alkaline simple spring that it heats and circulates, is piped to one place only: the stone open-air bath in each side of the shared bath hall on the first floor. The inn lists the spring for nerve, muscle and joint pain, stiff shoulders, bruises, sprains, poor circulation and fatigue.
The shared hall has a women's side, Tennyo-no-yu, with a large bath, the stone open-air bath and a bubbling sake-barrel tub, and a men's side, Sennin-no-yu, with a large bath, the stone open-air bath and a cypress lie-down bath. It is open from 3 p.m. to midnight and from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. A free foot bath on the fifth floor looks over the city from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.
The hotel
The inn is a five-story building on the site of Takayama Castle in Shiroyama Park, with the old town at the foot of the slope beside its entrance. Corridors are laid with tatami, and guests walk them in the tabi socks left in each room. Dinner features Hida beef, served in dining rooms on the second floor. The rooms page counts 53 rooms: the 11 with open-air tubs, 25 Japanese rooms and 17 Japanese-Western rooms. Check-in is from 3 p.m. and check-out by 10 a.m. The 40-space parking lot on the first floor is free.
Good to know
- The room tub is not spring water. The inn's spring runs only to the stone open-air bath in the shared hall.
- Free for open-air room guests: the women-only lounge Orihime, with two open-air baths and a planetarium steam room.
- Phone by noon for the station pickup, which meets JR trains arriving after 2 p.m.
- Morning shuttles go back to the station every 30 minutes from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m.
Getting there
Take the JR Hida limited express from Nagoya Station to Takayama Station. The inn picks up at the station by reservation: phone by noon on the day, and the car is timed to JR trains arriving after 2 p.m. The drive takes about 5 minutes. On foot the inn gives 15 to 16 minutes through the old town, ending in a steep slope up to Shiroyama Park.
Takayama STN · JR Takayama Main Line
About 15 minutes, with a steep slope at the end.
Free station pickup after 2 p.m., reserved by phone by noon that day; about 5 minutes by car.
Where it is
Takayama STN
- Shinkansen tickets Seats between any two stations, booked by date.
- JR Takayama-Hokuriku Area Tourist Pass ¥19,800 · 5 consecutive days Worth it if Gero, Shirakawa-go or Kanazawa is on the same 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, or reserve a private bath.
How we know
Bath layout confirmed, tattoo policy not published Checked on the official site (: the rooms pages list 11 rooms with an open-air tub, and the FAQ says those tubs are not hot spring water)
Best for: a private open-air tub with a view over the old town from the castle hill, for guests who do not mind that the water is not from the spring
The room tubs hold ordinary heated water, not spring water; the inn's FAQ and its bath page both say the spring is used only in the shared open-air stone bath. Seven Japanese rooms and four non-smoking Japanese-Western rooms have a tub, either a Shigaraki ceramic tub or a stone one, with a shower booth beside it. The top-floor bathing lounge Orihime is for women only and is shared, not private: free for guests in the open-air rooms, ¥1,500 for 90 minutes for other guests, booked on the day, from 5 p.m. to midnight, with no guests aged 12 or under. No day-use bathing.
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