Shibu Ryokan ★★★☆☆

Ichinoyu Katei

一乃湯 果亭

Does Ichinoyu Katei allow tattoos? In a private bath

Private bath only

The family bath here is named Amatsumikawa, the river of heaven, after the Tanabata lovers the two large baths are named for, and it is the one bath at Katei the house does not warn tattooed guests away from.

Katei’s English page warns that tattooed guests may not be allowed into the public baths or other shared facilities, so do not plan on the large baths. What is left is Amatsumikawa, a family bath that is free, not booked in advance, and lent out with a key from the front desk for 40 minutes when it is empty. That is the bath to stay here for.

Show this at the front desk

Guests with a tattoo may not be permitted to enter public bathing areas and other public facilities.

The operator’s own wording, to show at the desk if you need to.

Where it is

Tokyo STN Nagano STN change to Nagano Electric Railway · 45 min Hokuriku Shinkansen 97 min Hotel location
Yudanaka STN
Everything here is reached from Tokyo. Karuizawa is an hour on the Hokuriku Shinkansen and Echigo-Yuzawa 79 minutes on the Joetsu Shinkansen, both with no change. Kawaguchiko is the Fuji Excursion from Shinjuku, about two hours, and Isawa the Kaiji, an hour and forty. The Nagano towns change once: Bessho at Ueda, Nozawa at Iiyama, and Yudanaka, Hakuba and Myoko at Nagano.. Ichinoyu Katei · map data © OpenStreetMap contributors · open in Google Maps

JR East Pass Covers the Hokuriku Shinkansen from Tokyo to Nagano. The Nagano Electric Railway on to Yudanaka is a private line and is paid separately. Sold on Klook.

What happens when you arrive

Skip the shared baths and reserve the private one the way this page describes. Once the door is closed, the bath is yours.

How we know

Confirmed from official site (the inn’s English page for the tattoo line; the Japanese bath page for the family bath)

Read on: shibu-katei.jp/english.html

Best for: A couple with tattoos who want a free, lockable family bath and do not mind waiting for it

Family bath hours 15:00–21:00 and 7:00–9:30, 40 minutes a turn, key returned to the front. The large baths, named for the Cowherd and the Weaver of the Tanabata story, blend three sources and have open-air sections looking to the Shiga Highlands. A web-booking perk lets two parties a day have a large bath to themselves from 14:00 to 14:50, but whether that applies to a tattooed guest, given the English warning, is not said. Rooms share bathrooms. The English page mentions Kokuya, which suggests the two inns are run together.

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