River Retreat Garaku
リバーリトリート雅樂倶
Does River Retreat Garaku allow tattoos? In a private bath
River Retreat Garaku hangs over the Jinzu gorge with sculpture in the courtyards and four annex suites whose hinoki or black granite tubs are piped with Kasuga Onsen. Its house rules close the shared baths and spa to tattoos, so those suites are the whole answer.
The hotel’s house rules, revised August 2026, bar tattooed guests from the large baths and the like, which covers the shared indoor and open-air baths, the guests-only Spring Day Spa and the reservable open-air bath inside it. The way in is one of the four annex premier suites with a hot spring tub of their own: rooms 111, 113 and 114 with a hinoki tub and room 112 with a black granite one, each filled with Kasuga Onsen.
The bath
Kasuga Onsen comes from two of the hotel's wells, both sodium chloride springs: well 3 at 44.0°C and 60 liters a minute, pH 8.31, and well 4 at 71.9°C and 110 liters a minute, pH 7.44. Both are heated, diluted and run through circulating filtration, and the hotel lists them for neuralgia, muscle and joint pain, frozen shoulder, bruises and sprains. The shared bath has a roomy modern indoor hall and an open-air bath set in rough red rock with the Jinzu gorge in front of it. The Spring Day Spa, for staying guests only, adds a jacuzzi, a cold carbonated bath, a dry sauna (with a steam sauna on the women's side), an open-air bath and screened powder rooms. The hotel publishes no bath hours on its spa page.
For a tattooed guest all of that is closed, and the room is the bath. Four annex premier suites are listed as hot spring suites: Renka (111) and Genraku (113), about 150 m² plus a terrace for up to seven, each with a hinoki tub; Hibika (112) in black granite and Fusa (114) in hinoki, about 115 m² plus a terrace for up to four. Each room's page says the tub is piped with Kasuga Onsen, described as a smooth skin-softening water, and each looks out on a courtyard sculpture and the gorge side. The spa's own open-air bath can be reserved by other guests for 60 minutes at ¥2,000, at 3, 5 or 9 p.m.
The hotel
A 23-room hotel of the Izak group on the Jinzu river, with 15 rooms in the main building and eight suites in the annex, built around art: architecture, resident artists' work in the courtyards, a tea room, sound and an art walk through the grounds. Dinner and the hotel's breakfast use Toyama produce; a library, a shop and a hot-stone room with barley-stone and radium-ore beds (¥1,000 for one, ¥1,500 for two, 60 minutes, 3 to 11 p.m.) are inside. Guests charge electric cars free at 200 V stands, two of them for Tesla. The company also runs the Rakusuitei museum in the city.
Good to know
- Only four of 23 rooms have the spring tub: annex 111, 112, 113 and 114, labeled premier suite with hot spring.
- One free shuttle a day from Toyama Station at 11:30 a.m., guests only, booked by the day before.
- The reservable open-air bath is part of the spa, so the house rule keeps it off limits too.
- Free EV charging for guests, two Tesla stands and one for Japanese cars.
Getting there
The hotel runs one free shuttle a day from Toyama Station, leaving at 11:30 a.m. for staying guests who book by phone or web form by the day before. Otherwise take the JR Takayama line to Sasazu, where a free hotel car meets guests by arrangement; the hotel gives no train minutes. Drivers leave the Hokuriku Expressway at the Toyama interchange and follow Route 41 toward Takayama for about 20 minutes. Parking is free.
Toyama STN · Hokuriku Shinkansen; or the JR Takayama line to Sasazu
Not walkable.
Free shuttle from Toyama Station at 11:30 a.m. daily for guests, booked by the day before; free hotel car from Sasazu Station.
Where it is
Hotel door STN
- Hokuriku Shinkansen 2 hr 8 min from Tokyo
- hotel shuttle about 30 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.
How we know
Confirmed from official site (item in the house rules PDF linked from the home page, revised 2026-08-26; the four suites’ pages say their tubs draw Kasuga Onsen)
刺青、タトゥーを施された方の大浴場等のご利用はお断りいたします。
This is the rule for the shared baths. It doesn’t apply to the private baths.
Best for: a 115 to 150 m² suite over the Jinzu gorge with a hinoki or black granite spring tub, art on the walls and a free shuttle from Toyama Station
Annex premier suites with a spring tub: 111 Renka and 113 Genraku (about 150 m² plus terrace, up to seven, hinoki tub), 112 Hibika and 114 Fusa (about 115 m² plus terrace, up to four; 112 in black granite, 114 in hinoki). Each suite’s page says the tub is piped with Kasuga Onsen. The reservable open-air bath is the Spring Day Spa’s own, guests only, 60 minutes for ¥2,000 at 3, 5 or 9 p.m.; as part of the spa it falls under the refusal. The spring is heated, diluted and recirculated.
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