Tsukanoma
由布院温泉 束ノ間
Does Tsukanoma allow tattoos? In a private bath
The water at Tsukanoma comes up under its own pressure from 500 meters down and changes color as light and air get at it, so the operator warns that no two days look the same. Its day-use cottage plan gives you one of the detached buildings and its bath for the afternoon.
Tsukanoma sells a day plan that hands you a whole detached cottage with its own bath from 11:00 to 18:00 for 8,800 yen a head, which is the version of this place a tattooed visitor can use without asking anyone anything. The 800-yen walk-in ticket only buys the big shared open-air bath, and the operator publishes no tattoo rule for it, so do not read the cheaper ticket as an invitation.
The bath
The analysis is a sodium chloride spring at 97.4°C, pH 8.6, colorless and without taste or smell when it is drawn. Nothing is put in it: no water to cool it, no chemicals against scale, no chlorine at cleaning. The operator is equally direct that a spring this hot and this concentrated sometimes gives trouble without warning.
The big open-air bath looks across at Mount Yufu, and it is what the 800-yen walk-in ticket buys, 500 yen for school children, towels 200 more. Reception is 9:30 to 18:00 and the water is yours until 18:30. Closed Wednesdays and Thursdays. The day cottage plan is the other way in: 8,800 yen a head for a detached house and its own bath from 11:00 to 18:00, an extra hour 1,100 yen a person, bath towel, face towel and yukata included, bedding 2,000 yen and an amenity set 400. You cannot pick which cottage you get. If you stay the night, the room bath runs 24 hours while the big open-air bath runs 6:00 to 23:00 and goes out of service 8:30 to 9:30 and 18:30 to 19:30 for cleaning.
The hotel
Buildings scattered across a wide site and run as a settlement rather than a ryokan: no meals, no formal service, a microwave, sink and dishes in each house, and a firm ban on bringing your own burner or hotplate. There are a lot of stone steps, which the operator asks you to weigh before booking. On Saturdays and Sundays the canteen serves onsen noodles at 1,000 yen, boiled in the spring water and topped with slowly steamed salt pork, 11:30 to 14:30.
What is good about it
- 800 yen for the shared open-air bath, or 8,800 for a cottage and its own bath from 11:00 to 18:00.
- Closed Wednesdays and Thursdays, and the big bath is out 8:30 to 9:30 and 18:30 to 19:30 for cleaning.
- 97.4°C at the source and nothing added, no cooling water, no chlorine, no scale chemicals.
Getting there
Yufuin STN is on the JR Kyudai line, and the operator puts itself five minutes by car north of the middle of town. Buses reach the bus center in front of the station from Beppu in about an hour and from Fukuoka in about two.
Yufuin STN · JR Kyudai line; the Yufuin no Mori and Yufu limited expresses from Hakata, about 2 hours
The operator gives no walking time, only 5 minutes by car from the center of Yufuin.
Yufuin Station bus center: about an hour from Beppu, about two from Fukuoka.
Where it is
Hakata STN
JR Yufuin no Mori limited express 2 h 14
Kokura STN
Oita STN
✈Oita Airport
Hotel locationYufuin STN
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, bath structure rather than a tattoo policy (the operator’s day-use pages pg4328887 and pg1348)
Read on: tsukanoma.club/pg4328887.html
Best for: A tattooed day tripper who wants seven hours and a cottage rather than a towel and a queue
Day cottage 11:00–18:00, 8,800 yen per person, extra hours 1,100 yen each; bath towel, face towel and yukata included, bedding 2,000 yen extra. Walk-in bathing reception 9:30–18:00, water until 18:30, 800 yen adults and 500 yen for school children, towels 200. Closed Wednesdays and Thursdays. Formerly known as Shoya-no-Yakata.
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