APA Hotel Yamanote Otsuka Ekimae Tower
アパホテル〈山手大塚駅前タワー〉
Does APA Hotel Yamanote Otsuka Ekimae Tower allow tattoos? Yes, covered
You can bathe if the tattoo is completely hidden under a cover seal. The size the property allows is the thing to check before you book — allowances differ enough between chains to decide the matter.
Admitted if the tattoo fits under APA’s own cover seals: two seals of 10×12 cm (3.9×4.7 in), maximum, which must hide it completely. Overnight guests get two free per night at the front desk. A tattoo too large to cover is refused.
Seal size allowed: 10×12 cm (3.9×4.7 in)
Show this at the front desk
当社指定のシール(ポイントタトゥカバーシール)[サイズ10cm×12cm]2枚以内でタトゥーを覆うことが出来る場合には大浴殿を利用できます。
The operator’s own wording, copied from the page named under “How we know” below. Holding up your phone settles the question faster than explaining it.
The bath
Genyo no Yu is on the 20th floor, with an open-air bath, free to guests, open 06:00 to 10:00 and 15:00 to 02:00. APA’s standard bath water: a “quasi-natural Komeiseki hot spring”, which is to say an artificial spring made with a mineral ore, not water from the ground. A sensor counts people in, so the room television can tell you how busy it is before you go up.
The hotel
613 rooms in an all-non-smoking tower with an orange top you can see from the station; the superior and deluxe rooms are on the top floor. The 20th floor also has the ice machine and a microwave; every floor has a water dispenser.
What is good about it
- Three minutes from Otsuka STN, one stop from Ikebukuro.
- Bath from six in the morning on the 20th floor.
- Two 10×12 cm seals free per night.
Getting there
Three minutes to the right out of the south exit of Otsuka STN on the Yamanote line, one stop from Ikebukuro; the Toden Arakawa tram also stops at Otsuka.
Otsuka STN · JR Yamanote line; Toden Arakawa tram
About 3 minutes from the south exit.
One stop from Ikebukuro.
Where it is
Tokyo STN
Shinjuku STN
Shibuya STN
Ueno STN
↓ Haneda Airport 21 km
Narita Airport 54 km →
Hotel location · Otsuka STN 3 min
A chain rule with the smallest seal on this page
APA states its rule centrally, in force since 19 March 2019 and repeated on every property page: tattoos are refused in the daiyokujo unless they can be hidden under no more than two of APA’s own point cover seals, each 10×12 cm. Overnight guests get two per person per night free; the seals are APA’s, not yours, so the allowance is exactly 240 cm² and not a centimetre more.
That is the smallest allowance of any chain listed here — a third of Route Inn’s by area — so measure before you rely on it. The rule is the same at all 65 of the chain’s large-bath hotels.
What happens when you arrive
Cover the tattoo completely before you go in, with a seal that fits the size the property allows — that figure is in the policy line at the top of this page, and it is the property’s, not ours. Where the seals are sold at the front desk, buy them at check-in rather than at bath time; where they are not, bring your own. A seal that does not cover the whole tattoo counts as no seal, and staff are within their rules to turn you away at the door. Nothing needs declaring, but nothing may show.
How we know
Confirmed Confirmed from official site (chain-wide policy, in force since 2019-03-19)
Read on: apahotel.com/customer/stay-services/39/ (chain policy); bath confirmed on the property page
Best for: A 20th-floor bath and open-air bath three minutes from a quiet Yamanote station
The smallest seal allowance of the hotel chains on this page, so measure before you rely on it.
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