Yamaga Onsen Sunpalace Matsuzaka
山鹿温泉 サンパレス松坂
Does Yamaga Onsen Sunpalace Matsuzaka allow tattoos? In a private bath
Sunpalace Matsuzaka has six rooms in Yamaga town and a source-fed semi-open-air bath in every one of them, so the large bath downstairs is there if you want it and not if you don’t.
No tattoo rule is published. Every room has a semi-open-air bath filled with the undiluted source and usable around the clock, so a tattooed guest can skip the large bath, which is also sold to day visitors.
The bath
The inn's source is a weak alkaline simple spring that carries radium, pH 9.7 and 42.5°C at the source, and the inn says it adds no water, no heat and no minerals. It names three things the water is good for: the liver, the skin, and rheumatism and nerve pain.
The large bath on the ground floor runs 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. and is more spa than ryokan: a lying bath, a waterfall bath, a jet bath, a cold bath and, in summer, a jacuzzi, with massage chairs and a hot spring water dispenser outside. Day visitors can use it in the same hours for ¥400.
Every guest room has a semi-open-air bath of its own, and the inn says each one runs on 100 percent source water 24 hours a day. The modern Japanese-Western rooms, renovated in 2022, have a cypress tub by a window; the Japanese rooms have a semi-open-air tub of polished dark stone behind a lattice screen. Nothing needs booking: the tub is in the room.
The hotel
Six rooms in all, in two types: a modern Japanese-Western room with a raised living area and beds for up to five, and a Japanese room for up to three. Dinner is a kaiseki (a multi-course Japanese meal) of Yamaga vegetables and Ariake Sea fish, with Yamaga beef and horse sashimi on the menu, served at 6 or 6:30 p.m. in the dining room or, on some plans, in the room; breakfast is at 8 or 8:30 a.m. Children's meals and furniture are offered. Check-in 3 p.m. with the last arrival at 7 p.m., check-out 10 a.m. Free parking for ten cars, no reservation needed.
Good to know
- Six rooms, six tubs: every room's semi-open-air bath is on source water around the clock.
- The 2022 cypress rooms put the tub at a window behind a reed screen.
- The theater street is ten minutes on foot, by the inn's count.
- Yukata in your choice of color for adults and children.
Getting there
The inn shows its train and car routes only as diagrams and gives no bus stop or walking time from a station. From Shin-Tamana, the city's access guide puts the Kyushu Sanko bus to Yamaga bus center at about 50 minutes; the inn is in the old town near the Yachiyoza theater street, which it says is about a 10-minute walk away. Free parking for ten cars.
Shin-Tamana STN · Kyushu Shinkansen, then the Kyushu Sanko bus to Yamaga bus center
The inn publishes no walking time from the bus center; it puts the Yachiyoza street at about 10 minutes.
Free parking for ten cars, no reservation.
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 rooms and hot spring pages say every room has a source-fed semi-open-air bath)
Best for: a couple who wants a cypress view bath of their own a short walk from the old theater street
Two room types: a modern Japanese-Western room for up to five with a cypress view bath, renovated in 2022, and a Japanese room for up to three with a semi-open-air bath; the inn says every room’s bath runs on 100 percent source water around the clock. The spring is a weak alkaline simple water with radium, pH 9.7, 42.5°C, with no added water or heating. The large bath (11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.) has a lying bath, a waterfall bath, a jet bath, a cold bath and a summer jacuzzi, and is sold to day visitors for ¥400 in the same hours. Check-in 3 p.m. (last 7 p.m.), check-out 10 a.m. Free parking for 10 cars.
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