Kintaro Onsen
金太郎温泉
Does Kintaro Onsen allow tattoos? In a private bath
Kintaro Onsen pumps a sulfur and salt spring at about 75°C from 1,000 m down and runs it at full strength through a day-use bath complex and a mural bath for guests. Its FAQ turns tattooed bathers away from both and sends them to the private baths, booked by the hour.
The inn answers the tattoo question in its own FAQ: the large baths are closed to tattooed guests, and it points them instead to the private baths in its Karuna no Yakata day-use building, which run on the same source at 100 percent. Those are booked by phone for 60, 90 or 120 minutes on top of admission, and staying guests pay no admission.
The bath
The spring came up in 1965 from a well about 1,000 m deep and reaches the tubs at full strength: a sulfur-bearing sodium and calcium chloride spring of the hydrogen sulfide type, hypertonic, neutral and hot, about 75°C at the source, a salt spring and a sulfur spring in one cloudy water. The inn lists it for skin, cold sensitivity, neuralgia, rheumatism and back pain. Staying guests have the Hekiga mural bath, about 1,000 m² under a Kutani ceramic mural by the potter Asakura Isokichi, open through the night and as a morning bath from 5 to 8:30 a.m. The day-use building Karuna no Yakata opens every day from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m., last entry 11 p.m., free for guests and ¥1,300 for a day or ¥1,100 for three hours otherwise: a Tateyama panorama rock bath that the inn calls one of the largest indoor rock baths in Japan, a garden open-air bath, a hot sauna, lying and falling-water baths, foot and hip baths, a jet bath, a walking bath and a women-only beauty bath.
The private baths are in Karuna no Yakata too, and they are the inn's own answer for a tattooed guest, on the same spring at 100 percent. Rates are ¥1,800 for 60 minutes, ¥2,100 for 90 and ¥2,400 for 120, on top of admission, which guests do not pay. Book ahead by phone to the Karuna front desk, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; the last bath ends at 10 p.m. The inn's FAQ counts three rooms and the Karuna page four.
The hotel
A large hot spring hotel on the plain between Uozu and Kurobe, with standard Japanese and Western rooms in the main building and the Mine-no-kai luxury floor on the fourth floor, opened in 2010, whose open-air-tub rooms are filled with heated water rather than the spring. Forty rooms were renovated in 2019, when the dining room Napa opened; the tea lounge Ai to Beni dates from 2014. Dinner and breakfast are served in the restaurants, and the kitchen takes allergy requests. Check-in is 3 p.m., check-out 10 a.m.
Good to know
- Guests pay nothing to enter Karuna no Yakata, only the private bath fee of ¥1,800 an hour.
- Book the private bath by phone, reservations 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., last bath out at 10 p.m.
- The Mine-no-kai room tubs are heated tap water, so the spring is in the private baths, not the room.
- Free shuttle from the Shinkansen, six runs a day from Kurobe-Unazuki-Onsen Station east exit, 12 minutes.
Getting there
From Toyama Station take the Ainokaze Toyama Railway to Uozu, about 25 minutes, then the inn's free shuttle, about 10 minutes by day and 20 at night; the 8 and 9 p.m. pickups must be booked by 7 p.m. From the Hokuriku Shinkansen, get off at Kurobe-Unazuki-Onsen and take the shuttle from stop B at the east exit at 8:43 and 9:43 a.m., and at 2, 3, 4 and 5 p.m., 12 minutes. The Uozu city bus (Tenjin route, ¥200, Monday to Saturday) stops 2 minutes away. Parking is free.
Uozu STN · Ainokaze Toyama Railway from Toyama; or the Hokuriku Shinkansen to Kurobe-Unazuki-Onsen
Not walkable.
Free inn shuttle from Uozu Station (about 10 minutes) and from Kurobe-Unazuki-Onsen Station east exit (12 minutes, six runs a day).
Where it is
Hotel door STN
- Hokuriku Shinkansen 2 hr 8 min from Tokyo
- Ainokaze Toyama Railway 25 min
- hotel shuttle about 10 min
- Shinkansen tickets Seats between any two stations, booked by date.
- Hokuriku Arch Pass ¥35,000 · 7 days Seven days between Tokyo, Kanazawa and Osaka, with reserved seats on the Hokuriku Shinkansen from Tokyo to Toyama, and the Ainokaze Toyama Railway and JR Himi and Johana lines on to the coast and the Shogawa valley.
- 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 by phone.
How we know
Confirmed from official site (the inn’s FAQ, which names the private baths as the answer for tattooed guests)
大変申し訳ございませんが、大浴場のご入浴はお断りさせていただいております。該当のお客様には、源泉100％かけ流しを楽しめる貸切風呂がお勧めでございます。
This is the rule for the shared baths. It doesn’t apply to the private baths.
Best for: a sulfur and salt spring at full strength in a private room, with the Tateyama range on the skyline and a free shuttle from the Shinkansen
Private baths at Karuna no Yakata: ¥1,800 for 60 minutes, ¥2,100 for 90, ¥2,400 for 120, on top of day admission (¥1,300 all day, ¥1,100 for 3 hours; free for staying guests), booked ahead by phone to the Karuna front desk, reservations 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., bathing until 10 p.m. The FAQ counts three private bath rooms and the Karuna page four. The rooms with open-air tubs in the Mine-no-kai annex are filled with heated tap water, not the spring, as the FAQ says in so many words. The guest-only Hekiga mural bath is a shared bath and falls under the refusal.
Book your stay
- BBooking.comCheck availability
- TTrip.comCheck availability
Booking through these links costs you nothing extra and earns us a small commission, which keeps this guide free and up to date for our tattoo community. Thanks for your support.