Yufuin Yasuha
由布院温泉 杜の湯 ゆふいん泰葉
Does Yufuin Yasuha allow tattoos? In a private bath
Yasuha’s spring runs a cloudy cobalt the operator calls ao-yu, blue water, and the two rentable open-air baths are where you can sit in it alone. The room baths are fed from the same source, which the ryokan sells as having the whole thing to yourself.
Yasuha sells its two open-air kashikiri baths by the fifty minutes to anyone who walks in, guest or not, which makes it one of the few places in town a tattooed day visitor can bathe in the famous blue water without asking permission. The riverside bath takes four people for 2,800 yen, the mountainside one takes two for 2,300 yen, and fifteen more minutes costs 500. Four room types have a private open-air bath on the same water. No tattoo rule is published for the small indoor shared bath.
The bath
The ryokan says the water comes out of the ground clear and turns blue as it stands, that it began as a bicarbonate spring and was changed by arriving at close to 100°C under its own pressure, and it lists the analysis as bicarbonate and sodium chloride. The large bath and its open-air tub are for overnight guests only, 100 percent source-fed, open 15:00 to 25:00 and 5:00 to 9:00.
Two open-air baths are rented by the fifty minutes to anyone. The river-side one takes four people at 2,800 yen, the mountain-side one takes two at 2,300, fifteen more minutes is 500 yen, and guests take 500 off. The other day-use option is the small bath, men’s and women’s separate, 900 yen for adults and 500 for elementary-school children; the ryokan is explicit that it is indoors, with no outdoor tub. Day-use hours are 9:00 to 21:00, with last reception at 20:00. A face towel is 300 yen to buy and a bath towel 500 yen to rent. The foot bath in the grounds, Yufumi-no-yu, is free.
Three room types have an open-air bath: the eight-mat Mori-no-Hanare, the twelve-mat detached room whose tub is hollowed from a single slab of rock, and an eight-mat room in the main building that needs no stairs. BayMaay, a newer 50-square-meter detached room with beds, has an indoor bath instead. The main-building rooms upstairs have no bath, and guests in them get a private bath free for 40 minutes, reserved, starting on the hour between 15:00 and 21:00 and again 6:00 to 7:00.
The hotel
Nineteen rooms on a wooded rise above the town, divided between detached buildings and the main house. The detached ones involve a walk and a set of steps, which the ryokan asks guests with weak legs to raise before booking. Parking is free, twenty spaces. Bathing tax is 250 yen a person on top of the room rate.
What is good about it
- Fifty minutes in a private open-air bath, 2,300 or 2,800 yen, whether or not you are staying the night.
- The 900-yen bath is indoors only, so the blue water outdoors costs the rental price.
- Last day-use reception is 20:00, and the operator says it may close earlier when the baths are busy.
Getting there
The ryokan tells arriving guests to take a taxi from Yufuin STN, about 5 minutes, and runs its own pickup between 15:00 and 17:00. Its pages give the walk as 25 to 40 minutes, uphill either way. From the bus center in front of the station the taxi ride is the same.
Yufuin STN · JR Kyudai line; the Yufuin no Mori and Yufu limited expresses
About 25 to 40 minutes uphill by the operator’s own figures; it recommends a taxi, about 5 minutes.
Pickup for overnight guests, 15:00 to 17:00.
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 and rooms pages)
Read on: yasuha.co.jp/daytrip/
Best for: Getting the blue water to yourself for fifty minutes on a day trip
Day-use 9:00–21:00, last reception 20:00; the operator’s FAQ says no advance booking is taken at all, so you sign up at the desk on the day. Shared indoor bath 900 yen for adults, 500 for elementary-school children. Four room types have their own open-air bath, including the eight-mat and twelve-mat detached rooms.
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