Yufuin Hoteiya
由布院温泉 ほてい屋
Does Yufuin Hoteiya allow tattoos? In a private bath
Two of the baths at Hoteiya have a door and a lock and cost nothing: the indoor Hotei-no-yu for rain and cold, the open-air Yufudake-no-yu for the mountain. Eleven of the thatched cottages also carry an open-air bath on their own deck, filled the whole time you are there.
Nothing here asks you to cover anything, because the two best baths lock from the inside. Hoteiya keeps two kashikiri baths, an indoor one called Hotei-no-yu and an open-air one called Yufudake-no-yu, both free and taken in 40-minute turns, and eleven of its rooms have an open-air bath of their own that is yours for the whole stay. The operator publishes no rule about tattoos in the shared Benten-no-yu, so treat that one as unanswered.
The bath
Benten-no-yu is the bath everyone shares, open to the air and floored with smooth Amakusa whetstone, with Mount Yufu behind it. It keeps the same hours as the two locking baths, 15:00 to 23:00 and again 6:00 to 9:00, and a turn in one of those runs 40 minutes. The onsen page says you take them whenever they happen to be free rather than booking a slot, while the page on the buildings says check-in and the kashikiri arrangements are both handled at the lobby, so ask at the desk which it is on the day.
The water is a simple spring. Among the eleven cottage baths the shapes differ: Shidaka has a round cypress tub built into its wood deck that you can sit on the edge of as a foot bath, Kunisaki a small pot bath in its courtyard, Asagiri a rock bath under a roof. Tsurumi, Takasago, Kunisaki and Fuji add an indoor tub as well. The two main-building rooms, Lavender and Kokonoe, have no bath at all, so the room type is the thing to get right when you book.
The hotel
Thatched roofs, and in places old farmhouses moved here and rebuilt: Tsurumi and Takasago are both relocated kominka, and Yufu and Tsurumi are each one half of a two-story building, with a different room on the other floor. Meals are in Momen Saryo or the second-floor dining room, dinner 17:30 to 18:30 and breakfast 7:30 to 8:30. Beside the lobby is Yoppi-tei, where sweet potatoes and eggs steamed in spring water come out at check-in time and a member of staff makes popcorn over the hearth.
What is good about it
- Forty minutes a turn in the locking baths, taken when the door is open rather than booked ahead.
- Eleven of the thirteen rooms have their own open-air bath, and the two rooms in the main building have no bath at all.
- Free pickup from Yufuin STN, seven to ten minutes after you phone from the station or the bus center.
Getting there
Yufuin STN is about 21 minutes away on foot by the ryokan’s own count, and it will send a car if you call on arrival. Kinrin Lake is 8 minutes away, the thatched public bath Shitanyu 6, and the Yunotsubo shopping street 5.
Yufuin STN · JR Kyudai line; the Yufuin no Mori and Yufu limited expresses from Hakata
About 21 minutes by the ryokan’s count.
Free pickup from the station or the bus center in front of it, 7 to 10 minutes after you call.
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 onsen page lists both free kashikiri baths and the eleven rooms with their own open-air bath)
Read on: hoteiya-yado.jp/onsen/
Best for: A tattooed guest who wants a whole bath to themselves twice a day without paying extra for it
Two free kashikiri baths, 40 minutes a turn, 15:00–23:00 and 6:00–9:00, taken when the door is unlocked rather than booked. The inn gives the walk from Yufuin STN as about 21 minutes. Thatched-roof detached cottages; the operator says some rooms have no bath, so ask for one of the eleven that do. Free shuttle from JR Yufuin STN.
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