Kawakita, on a hill west of the station Ryokan (detached cottages)

Yufuin Hanayoshi

朝霧のみえる宿 ゆふいん花由

Does Yufuin Hanayoshi allow tattoos? In a private bath

Private bath only

Hanayoshi sits high enough on the Kawakita side to look down on the fog that fills the Yufuin basin at dawn, which is where its name comes from. Its cottages come with an open-air bath, and seven of the cottage types add a foot bath on the deck.

The operator’s own description of itself is a ryokan of detached cottages with open-air baths, and the room types on sale carry an open-air bath, some with a foot bath as well. That is the whole answer for a tattooed guest: bathe in your own cottage. Main-building rooms without a bath are also sold, so pick the room type carefully, and note that no tattoo rule is published for the shared baths.

Illustration of Yufuin Hanayoshi in Kawakita, on a hill west of the station

The bath

The rooms are where this one gets answered, and the operator is unusually straight about what is in them. Every detached room has two baths, and they are not the same water: the open-air one is hot spring on a circulating system, and the indoor tub beside it is plain water heated up. That pairing is written into the equipment list for each room type. The four Japanese-Western rooms upstairs in the main building have neither, but a unit bath that is spring water, with a television set in it. Room baths are yours from check-in to check-out.

Be careful what you expect to see from them. The inn says only the main-building rooms, cottage type C, the Executive room and cottage type E have a view worth the name, because the other cottages are walled so that nobody can see in, and Mount Yufu has to be leaned out for. Seven cottage types add a foot bath on the wood deck.

The two shared baths are Makoto-no-yu for men and Megumi-no-yu for women. Each has an open-air tub, an indoor tub and an octagonal one kept cooler so children can sit in it; the women’s side adds a jacuzzi. They run from 15:00 to 9:00 the next morning, and the changing rooms have been redone with free lockers, baby beds and chilled water. The spring is an alkaline simple one.

The hotel

Rooms are split between two areas, Hanayoshi and Yumenosato, each with its own dining room, so the side you book decides where you eat. Six room types take one group a day. The inn is not barrier-free: slopes and steps throughout, and it asks that wheelchairs not be used in the rooms. Check-in is 15:00 with the last at 20:00, check-out 10:00, curfew midnight. Coffee is free in the lobby 18:00 to 21:00 and 7:30 to 11:00.

What is good about it

Getting there

The free shuttle is the way in and it has to be booked when you book the room: out of JR Yufuin STN at a time you pick between 15:00 and 17:00, and back at 8:40 and every half hour from 9:00 to 11:00. Arrive after 17:00 and it is a taxi.

Yufuin STN · JR Kyudai line; the Yufuin no Mori and Yufu limited expresses
The inn publishes no walking time and asks guests to use its shuttle or a taxi.

Shuttle from the station 15:00 to 17:00, reserved with the room.

Where it is

Hakata STN JR Yufuin no Mori limited express 2 h 14 Kokura STN Oita STN Oita Airport Hotel location
Yufuin STN
Hakata to Beppu is about 1 h 55 on the Sonic, JR Kyushu’s limited express up the coast (a faster train with fewer stops and a fee on top of the fare); Yufuin is the Yufuin no Mori, about 2 h 15 inland by way of Hita, and the Yufu runs the same rails when it is full. Yufuin Hanayoshi · map data © OpenStreetMap contributors · open in Google Maps

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 own line 露天風呂付離れ, and the room types listed on the booking page)

Read on: hanayoshi.co.jp

Best for: Waking up above the morning fog the inn is named for, with the bath already full

The name means the inn that sees the morning mist, which forms in the basin below on cold mornings. Free shuttle from JR Yufuin STN, booked when you reserve; the inn names no bus. Reception answers 10:00–11:30 and 13:00–21:00. Rooms without a bath exist in the main building.

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