Sanrakuen
庄川温泉郷 鳥越の宿 三楽園
Does Sanrakuen allow tattoos? In a private bath
Sanrakuen on the Shogawa has run two springs since 1924, a cloudy bicarbonate water and a red iron water, each with its own open-air bath. Two of its rooms have a long semi-open-air tub, filled with heated tap water rather than either spring, as the inn says itself.
The inn publishes no tattoo rule on its hot spring page, rooms page or FAQ, so nothing is promised for the two shared springs. It has no reservable private bath. The listing is for its two modern rooms with a semi-open-air bath, and the inn says plainly that those room baths are not hot spring water: they are ordinary heated water in a tub over two meters long with the Shogawa river in the window.
The bath
The inn has two springs of its own and keeps them apart. Shogawa Seiryu Onsen is a bicarbonate spring that comes out cloudy white, which the inn sells as a skin-softening bath; Torigoe-no-yu is a carbonated iron spring, red-brown with iron, in use since the Taisho era. Both run straight from the source without recirculation. The indoor hall is the large bath, and outside there are two open-air baths, one for each spring. Bathing hours are 6 to 9:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. to midnight, and the men's and women's sides do not swap, so each side keeps its own pair of tubs. The inn publishes no day-use bathing and has no private bath.
Two Japanese-modern rooms have a semi-open-air bath. The tub is more than two meters long and sits at a wide window over the Shogawa river and the Tonami Arashiyama hills. The inn says in plain words that this bath is not hot spring water; it is heated tap water, there for the view and for bathing alone.
The hotel
A 21-room inn founded in 1924 as a cuisine inn and run by its owner Sakai Hikonari, with the motto that guests leave cleaner in body and mind. Eleven Japanese-modern rooms face the gorge with lighting that won an Illuminating Engineering Institute award, dimmed to moonlight at bedtime; two have the semi-open-air bath, two have shower booths, one looks at the roof, a 100 m² two-room suite sleeps eight and takes no children under ten, and four unrenovated Japanese rooms remain. Dinner is kaiseki (a multi-course Japanese meal) with Toyama fish, including nodoguro, white shrimp and red snow crab in season, and the inn has a beauty salon. Check-in is 3 p.m. and check-out 10 a.m., though plans vary.
Good to know
- The room tub is heated tap water, the inn says so itself; the two springs stay in the shared baths.
- Shuttle seats are eight a day, from Tonami Station south exit at 2:15 and 3 p.m., booked by phone; the 3 p.m. run ends in January 2027.
- From January 2027 the shuttle costs ¥550 each way. Before that it is free.
- No private bath and no day-use bathing are published, so the room is the only bath you have alone.
Getting there
From Toyama Station take the Ainokaze Toyama Railway to Takaoka, about 20 minutes, then the JR Johana line to Tonami; the inn gives the rail minutes only as a map image. The inn's shuttle leaves Tonami Station's south exit at 2:15 and 3 p.m. and returns at 9:30 a.m., eight seats a day booked by phone; the 3 p.m. run stops in January 2027, when a ¥550 one-way fee begins. Drivers come from the Tonami interchange on the Hokuriku Expressway.
Tonami STN · Ainokaze Toyama Railway to Takaoka, then the JR Johana line
Not walkable.
Inn shuttle from Tonami Station south exit at 2:15 and 3 p.m., eight seats, booked by phone; ¥550 a ride from January 2027.
Where it is
Hotel door STN
- Hokuriku Shinkansen 2 hr 8 min from Tokyo
- Ainokaze Toyama Railway 17 min
- JR Johana line 23 min
- hotel shuttle about 15 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
Bath layout confirmed, tattoo policy not published Checked on the official site (the rooms page for the two semi-open-air-bath rooms, which says the tubs are not hot spring water)
Best for: a river-view room with a long tub of plain hot water at an inn that runs two different springs for everyone else
Two Japanese-modern rooms with a semi-open-air bath; the rooms page says outright that the room bath is not hot spring water. The tub is over two meters long and the window frames the Shogawa and the Tonami Arashiyama hills. No private bath. The two springs in the shared baths, a bicarbonate spring and a carbonated iron spring, both run straight from the source.
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