Zao Onsen, on the upper lane behind the hot spring street Ryokan

Meitoya So

名湯舎創

Does Meitoya So allow tattoos? In a private bath

Private bath only

A small modern house of the Takamiya group, all rooms non-smoking, with an open-air bath cut into rock and a private bath made of glazed pottery. It is also the easiest place in town to buy the 100 yen ticket for the three old bathhouses.

No rule is published here either. The inn’s FAQ runs to rooms, meals and cancellation charges and stops short of the bath rules, so treat the two shared baths as unanswered. The half-open private bath, a glazed ceramic tub booked for fifty minutes at a time between 08:00 and 23:00, is the part of this house a tattooed guest can count on.

Where it is

Sendai is the door to all of these. Akiu is 43 minutes on one bus from the station, with no change. Nyuto is the Komachi, JR’s Shinkansen across to Akita, as far as Tazawako, then a bus of 47 minutes, about 2 h 20 in all. Naruko is twelve minutes on the Shinkansen to Furukawa and three quarters of an hour up the Rikuu East line. Zao is the Senzan line rapid over the mountains to Yamagata, then a bus of 37 minutes up to the ski village. Meitoya So · 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, not a tattoo policy (the 貸切風呂 block on the 温泉 page); nothing on tattoos anywhere on meitoya.com

Read on: meitoya.com/hotspa/

Best for: A ceramic half-open tub at 2,200 yen, the cheapest private bath of any inn in Zao

Private bath 50 minutes for 2,200 yen, 08:00–23:00. The shared rock open-air bath and the wooden indoor bath are open around the clock. The front desk sells guests a 100 yen ticket good at Kami-yu, Shimo-yu and Kawara-yu, and a discounted ticket for the Dai-rotenburo at 650 yen for guests against 850 at the gate, with the season given as 期間 4月下旬～11月中旬. Takamiya group guests bathe free at the group’s other Zao houses between 08:00 and 10:00 and 13:00 and 20:00.

Check availability

Booking through this button costs you nothing extra and sends a small commission our way — it’s what keeps this guide free for our tattoo community, and every policy on it checked. Thank you.

Others in the same group

More places in the zao with private bath only

Miyamaso TakamiyaZao Onsen, on Takayu-dori in the old part of the hot spring street → WakamatsuyaZao Onsen, on the hot spring street a short walk from the bus terminal → Mogami Takayu Zenshichi-no-yuZao Onsen, on the rise above the hot spring street in the middle of the ski area → Gokan-no-yu TsuruyaZao Onsen, across from the bus terminal at the entrance to Takayu-dori → Pension Boku no UchiZao Onsen, at the foot of the Uwanodai slopes next to a convenience store → Takamiya Hotel LucentZao Onsen, on the Uwanodai side with the slopes across the road →

All zao listings →