Toba International Hotel Shiojitei
鳥羽国際ホテル 潮路亭
Does Toba International Hotel Shiojitei allow tattoos? In a private bath
Shiojitei's five garden suites each come with a wooden open-air tub on a private deck, set behind a corridor that only suite guests can unlock. Its shared pearl bath and hot spring hall are closed to tattoos.
Shiojitei refuses tattooed bathers in its bath hall, Tokowaka-no-yu, and its FAQ adds that a fashion or religious tattoo makes no difference. The way in is a room: five garden suites each have a private open-air bath on their own deck, behind a security-locked corridor.
The bath
The suites are the reason to come with a tattoo. Five of them, on the inn's special floor, have their own open-air bath and a wooden deck facing a Japanese garden of pines, rocks and a stone lantern. The photo shows a square wooden tub brimming under the eaves. Kamiji is the largest at 84 square meters, the inn's top room; Shimaji, Isuzu, Uji and Ominato are 63 square meters. All take up to four. The rooms are named for places around Ise Grand Shrine, and the floor sits behind a security lock with a code given at check-in. Women staying in these suites can borrow a yukata (a light cotton robe) dyed with Ise-katagami stencils. The inn does not say whether the suite tubs carry spring water.
The shared bath hall, Tokowaka-no-yu, pairs an indoor hot spring with an open-air bath. The spring is a sodium chloride water that the inn says keeps you warm after bathing and helps fatigue, cold sensitivity, joint pain and sore muscles. The open-air Pearl Aurora bath was made for Shiojitei by Mikimoto Pharmaceutical with pearl extracts; it is colored blue in summer and gold in winter, and is not hot spring water. There is a dry sauna. The hall is open 6 to 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. to midnight.
The hotel
Shiojitei stands on the Monda headland next to Toba International Hotel, whose guests share its bath, with a Japanese design built around Mie crafts: every room hangs Ise-katagami stencil work, some use Ise cotton, and each has a book of Toba haiku through the seasons. Rooms range from modern twins and Japanese rooms of 8 to 16 mats to two special Japanese rooms and the five suites. Dinner is in the inn's dining room, or at its teppanyaki (cooked on an iron griddle) counter, which takes reservations only.
Good to know
- Five suites have a private open-air bath, on a deck facing the garden.
- A code lock keeps the suite corridor to suite guests.
- Shuttle every half hour from Toba Station, about 3 minutes, from 8:45 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Getting there
From Kintetsu Nagoya, the Kintetsu limited express reaches Toba in about 1 hour 40 minutes; from Osaka Namba, about 2 hours. Leave the Kintetsu ticket gate and go down the stairs at exit 1, where the free shuttle for Toba International Hotel and Shiojitei waits. It leaves the station every 30 minutes or so from 8:45 a.m. to 6 p.m. and reaches Shiojitei in about 3 minutes. After the last bus, call the front desk.
Toba STN · Kintetsu Toba Line (limited express from Kintetsu Nagoya)
About 500 m from the station.
Free shuttle from Kintetsu Toba exit 1 about every 30 minutes, 8:45 a.m. to 6 p.m., about 3 minutes.
Where it is
Hotel bus stop
- Kintetsu limited express 1 hr 35 min
- hotel bus about 3 min
- Shinkansen tickets Seats between any two stations, booked by date.
- Kintetsu Rail Pass, 5 days ¥4,900 Worth it if you’re coming from Osaka, or stopping at Ise or Nara on the way. It covers Kintetsu trains between Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Ise, Toba and Nagoya; the limited express seat is extra, about ¥1,340 from Nagoya or ¥1,640 from Osaka. From Nagoya and back, ordinary tickets cost less.
- Ise Grand Shrine and Toba Aquarium day tour Ise Grand Shrine, the Wedded Rocks at Futami, and Toba Aquarium or Mikimoto Pearl Island, from Nagoya.
- 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 notes on the inn’s bath page, repeated in its FAQ assistant; the suites are from its room pages)
下記の方のご利用は、固くお断りをさせていただきます。・刺青(入れ墨)、Tattoo(タトゥー)の入ってる方
This is the rule for the shared baths. It doesn’t apply to the private baths.
Best for: a couple with tattoos who want a garden suite with its own open-air tub and a ryokan dinner, three minutes from the station
The five suites with an open-air bath are Kamiji (84 square meters) and Shimaji, Isuzu, Uji and Ominato (63 square meters), each for up to four, facing a Japanese garden. The inn does not say whether the suite tubs carry spring water. The shared bath hall has a sodium chloride hot spring indoors and the Pearl Aurora open-air bath, made with Mikimoto Pharmaceutical's pearl extract, which the inn says is not hot spring water. Hall hours 6 to 10:30 a.m. (last entry 10) and 1 p.m. to midnight (last entry 11:30); free for guests of Shiojitei and Toba International Hotel, bath tax 150 yen.
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