Hotel Morinokaze Oshuku
ホテル森の風鶯宿
Does Hotel Morinokaze Oshuku allow tattoos? Yes, covered
Hotel Morinokaze Oshuku keeps its open-air baths on the roof, facing Mount Iwate across the Shizukuishi basin. A sealed-over tattoo has been allowed in them since July 2024, under a rule the hotel introduced as a trial.
Tattooed guests may bathe here only if every tattoo is covered with cover seals or something similar; the hotel says anyone who does not follow that is refused, as everyone with a tattoo was before July 1, 2024. The hotel also has two reservable private baths and 17 Shikisai rooms with their own open-air spring tub, but its notice does not say whether the seal rule reaches those.
Show this at the front desk
弊社では、入れ墨・タトゥ－のある方のご入館・ご入浴を原則お断りとしますが、下記ルールを厳守していただける方は、 2024年7月1日より、テスト的にご入浴を受け入れることにいたしました。 ◆ご入浴ルール 入れ墨・タトゥーが全て覆える様に、専用カバーシール等でデザインを隠していただければご入浴を受け入れます。但し、当ホテルのルールを守っていただけない方に関しては、今まで通りご入浴をお断りさせていただきます。
The operator’s own wording, to show at the desk if you need to.
The bath
The large baths and open-air baths draw on the Oshuku Onsen Yoakezawa No. 2 source, an alkaline simple spring at 52.4°C and pH 8.8. The hotel lists it for cold sensitivity, stiff shoulders, back pain, fatigue, stress and sleeplessness. There are two sides: the Japanese-style bath and the European-style bath, which the hotel says was modeled on a European palace. Each has a large indoor bath with big windows, a half-open-air tub, a dry sauna and a rooftop open-air bath the hotel calls its sky bath, looking across the Shizukuishi basin to Mount Iwate, Akita-Komagatake and Himekami. Men and women swap sides between night and morning. Hours are 5:30 to 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. to midnight.
Two private baths sit on the second floor of the Mori-no-Yakata wing: a rock bath and a ceramic pot bath, both indoors, fed from the separate Yoakezawa No. 1 source at 56.4°C. Each costs ¥3,300 for 70 minutes, between 3 p.m. and midnight with last entry at 11 p.m., and must be booked ahead; filling takes about 90 minutes. The 17 Shikisai rooms each have their own open-air tub of cypress, ceramic or pot style, fed 100 percent by flowing spring water.
The hotel
A 221-room resort hotel run by Nihon House Hotel & Resort, which also runs Hotel Morinokaze Tateyama and Hotel Higashi Nihon Utsunomiya. Shikisai guests get Airweave mattresses, their own menu at dinner and breakfast, their own toiletries and a choice of colored yukata (a light cotton robe); the Shikisai rooms run from twins with a six-mat Japanese room to barrier-free rooms, one with a hoist at the tub. A pet room keeps dogs in cages, since pets may not enter the building. Check-in is 3 p.m. and check-out 10 a.m.
Good to know
- Book the private baths early, since filling one takes about 90 minutes and the hotel takes reservations only.
- Free shuttle from Morioka Station, four runs a day from the west exit, booked by the day before.
- Two separate sources, Yoakezawa No. 2 for the large baths and No. 1 for the private baths.
- Sides swap overnight, so a two-night stay gets both the Japanese and the European bath.
Getting there
From Morioka Station, the hotel's free shuttle leaves bus stop 29 at the west exit at 9:40 and 11:20 a.m., and at 2:50 and 4:50 p.m., and takes 40 minutes; book it with the hotel by the day before. By car it is about 30 minutes from Morioka Station and about 25 minutes from the Morioka interchange of the Tohoku Expressway. From Iwate Hanamaki Airport the hotel counts about 55 minutes by car.
Morioka STN · JR Tohoku Shinkansen
Not walkable.
Free hotel shuttle from Morioka Station west exit, 40 minutes, booked by the day before.
Where it is
- Shinkansen tickets Seats between any two stations, booked by date.
- JR East Pass from ¥35,000 · 5 or 10 consecutive days Covers the Hayabusa from Tokyo to Morioka, seat fee included.
- 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
Cover the tattoo completely before you go in. The hotel doesn't specify a size, so cover everything.
How we know
Confirmed from official site (the notice at the top of the hot spring page, in force from July 1, 2024)
Best for: travelers willing to seal up for a rooftop open-air bath that looks across the Shizukuishi basin to Mount Iwate
The hotel calls the seal rule a trial, so it may change, and it names no seal size or whether seals are sold at the desk. The two private baths (a rock bath and a ceramic pot bath, both indoors) cost ¥3,300 for 70 minutes, 3 p.m. to midnight with last entry at 11 p.m., booked ahead; the FAQ adds ¥550 per extra 15 minutes. The 17 Shikisai rooms each have an open-air tub of cypress, ceramic or pot style, fed 100 percent by flowing spring water. The adjoining garden park is closed for renovation until a planned reopening in April 2027.
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