Yamaga Onsen Chozantei
山鹿温泉 眺山庭
Does Yamaga Onsen Chozantei allow tattoos? In a private bath
Chozantei sits above Yamaga with an open-air bath over the rooftops, and every room, in the main building or the 2023 Premier annex, has its own indoor bath of heated spring water.
No tattoo rule is published. Every room in the main building and the Premier annex has its own indoor bath of natural spring water, kept hot with heating, so a tattooed guest can leave the large bath and the open-air bath over the town to other people.
The bath
The water is an alkaline simple spring at pH 9.63, which the inn calls a beauty bath for its smooth feel on the skin, and it lists neuralgia, fatigue, muscle and joint pain, rheumatism and poor circulation as its uses. The inn describes its baths as natural spring water run kakenagashi (spring water that flows through the tub and isn't reused) with heating.
The shared baths are an open-air bath that looks out over the Yamaga townscape and a large indoor bath lit by daylight in the day and lamps at night, with a lounge of sofas and vending machines at the entrance. Day visitors are taken 3 to 8 p.m., last entry 7 p.m., for ¥1,000 (children ¥500).
Every room has its own indoor spring bath. In the main building that means all twelve rooms, whether the Japanese rooms Sazanka and Tsubaki, the Japanese-Western rooms Ooruri, Sekirei, Hoojiro and Yamagara, or the twin room Hibari. In the Premier annex, opened in March 2023, each of the five 20-mat suites, Kaede, Sekka, Kikumatsuba, Aoi and Ashibe, has a bath room of eight mats with a sunken stone tub, a window onto a lit courtyard and a waterproof television on the wall. The room tubs can be used at any hour.
The hotel
Twelve rooms in the main building and five suites in the Premier annex, all non-smoking, with Wi-Fi throughout and Amazon Prime Video in every room. Dinner is a seasonal Japanese kaiseki (a multi-course Japanese meal) by head chef Yuta Kawamura, served at 6:30 p.m. in the Chozantei-no-ma dining room, which looks over the night lights of the town, or in private rooms; breakfast at 8 a.m. is a Japanese set with Kumamoto specialties such as mustard lotus root. Check-in 3 p.m., last arrival 6:30 p.m., check-out 10 a.m.
Good to know
- Seventeen rooms, seventeen tubs: every room has its own heated spring bath.
- The Premier suites' bath rooms are eight mats, with a courtyard window and a waterproof television.
- Pickup can be asked for by phone, and the inn is five minutes by car from Yamaga bus center.
- Drinks in the Premier fridge are free, by the inn's listing on Trip.com.
Getting there
From Shin-Tamana take the Kyushu Sanko bus to Yamaga bus center, about 50 minutes by the city's guide, then a taxi for about 5 minutes; the inn also quotes the route bus from Kumamoto Sakuramachi to the bus center at about 1 hour 15 minutes. From Fukuoka's Tenjin terminal the inn counts about 1.5 hours on the highway bus to the Kikusui interchange stop and 10 minutes by taxi. By car it is about 20 minutes from the Ueki interchange on Route 3 or 10 minutes from Kikusui on prefectural road 16. The inn asks guests to call if they want to be collected.
Shin-Tamana STN · Kyushu Shinkansen, then the Kyushu Sanko bus to Yamaga bus center
Not walkable.
Taxi about 5 minutes from Yamaga bus center; pickup on request by phone.
Where it is
Yamaga Onsen bus stop
- Kyushu Shinkansen 40 min
- Sanko bus 50 min
- Shinkansen tickets Seats between any two stations, booked by date.
- JR Kyushu Rail Pass from ¥12,000 · 3, 5 or 7 consecutive days Worth it if Yamaga is one stop in a longer Kyushu trip by train.
- Kyushu SunQ Pass Worth it if you’d rather ride buses. It covers the Sanko buses from Shin-Tamana and Kumamoto to Yamaga and highway buses across the island.
- 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.
How we know
Bath layout confirmed, tattoo policy not published Checked on the official site: (the standard room page says every room has a heated kakenagashi spring bath; the Premier page lists an 8-mat bath room in each suite)
Best for: a couple who wants an eight-mat private bath room with a television in it and a view bath upstairs if they feel like it
The main building has twelve rooms in three types (Japanese rooms Sazanka and Tsubaki; Japanese-Western rooms Ooruri, Sekirei, Hoojiro and Yamagara; the twin room Hibari), all with a natural spring indoor bath run kakenagashi with heating. The Premier annex, opened March 2023, has five 20-mat non-smoking suites (Kaede, Sekka, Kikumatsuba, Aoi, Ashibe), each with an 8-mat bath room with a waterproof television. Spring: alkaline simple, pH 9.63. The shared side is a large bath and an open-air bath looking over Yamaga. Day use 3 to 8 p.m. (last entry 7 p.m.), ¥1,000 adults, ¥500 children. Check-in 3 p.m. (last 6:30 p.m.), check-out 10 a.m.
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