Onsen Stays in Japan

An onsen is a bath fed by natural hot-spring water, and most people arrive with the same two questions. So, first: yes, you bathe naked — swimwear is not permitted anywhere traditional — and yes, tattoos are a real issue, but a solvable one, with tattoo-friendly towns like Kinosaki and private kashikiri baths as the way round it. Both are answered properly below, because everything else is easy once they are settled.

What is onsen etiquette, step by step?

An onsen is not a swimming pool, and the rules exist for hygiene rather than ceremony. They are simple and nobody minds a beginner.

1. Undress completely in the changing room. Swimwear is not permitted anywhere traditional — it is considered unhygienic, and this is not negotiable.
2. Wash thoroughly before getting in. There is a row of low showers with stools, soap and shampoo. Sit down, wash properly, rinse off every trace of soap. You enter the bath already clean; the bath is for soaking, not for cleaning.
3. The small towel never touches the water. Carry it with you, and rest it on your head or on the stone edge while you soak.
4. Men's and women's baths are separate. Look for 男 (men) and 女 (women) on the curtains — and note that many places swap the two sides once or twice a day so everyone gets both baths. Check the curtain each time, not just the first time.
5. No photographs in the bathing area, and no phones.
6. Tie long hair up, keep your voice down, and don't get in if you have been drinking heavily.

That is genuinely all of it. Ten minutes in and it will feel obvious.

Can you enter an onsen with tattoos?

The traditional association with organised crime means many onsen still refuse guests with visible tattoos. That is the position; here is how to work around it.

• Small tattoos can usually be covered. Waterproof patches are sold at many facilities and at convenience stores.
• Some towns have simply dropped the rule. Kinosaki Onsen is the clearest case — all seven of its public baths accept any tattoo, of any size. Kurokawa in Kyushu has a number of accepting inns.
• A private bath solves it anywhere. Almost every ryokan has a kashikiri-buro — a family or rental bath you book for 45 minutes and have entirely to yourself. No policy applies to a room you are alone in.
• Ask directly. Email the inn with a photograph. Policies vary by property, not by region, and staff answer this question constantly.

What counts as an onsen, and what is a sento?

The word is legally defined: water from a natural source, emerging at 25°C or above, carrying dissolved minerals. Anything else is a bath with hot water in it.

That distinction matters because of sentō — public bathhouses, common in cities like Tokyo, running on heated tap water. A sentō is a fine thing and a genuinely local experience, but it is utilitarian: you go to get clean and sit for twenty minutes, not to make a journey of it. Plenty of business hotels advertise an "onsen" that is, in practice, a sentō. Worth knowing before you book a hotel for its bath.

What kinds of onsen bath are there?

• Rotenburo — an outdoor bath, usually stone-edged, open to the trees or the snow. The one most visitors remember.
• Kashikiri-buro — a private bath booked by the slot, for couples, families, or anyone who would rather bathe alone.
• Tegata — a pass letting you use the baths at several different inns in one town, around ¥1,200–1,500. Kurokawa, Okuhida and Kinosaki all run one.
• Higaeri — day use. A ryokan opens its baths to non-guests for a few hours, typically ¥800–1,500.

Can you visit an onsen without staying overnight?

This deserves more attention than it usually gets. A full onsen experience — outdoor bath, mountain view, the whole business — is available to you for well under ¥1,500 through higaeri day access or a town's public baths. If a ryokan's ¥40,000 rate doesn't fit the trip, the bathing is not what you are giving up.

Which onsen towns are worth travelling to?

Roughly by how easily you can reach them:

• From Tokyo — Hakone, the obvious one: direct trains, a lake, museums, Mt. Fuji on a clear day, and inns at every price. Kusatsu is further (about three hours by train and bus) but more of a real onsen town, with a steaming geothermal field in the middle of it. Itō on the Izu coast is quieter and cheaper, with sea views, and Shuzenji nearby has temples and a bamboo grove.
• From Osaka and Kobe — Arima, an hour by bus, with two distinct waters, gold and silver. Kinosaki is three hours away and worth every minute: seven public baths, everyone walking between them in yukata and wooden sandals, and no tattoo problem.
• Kyushu — the richest region for this. Kurokawa is all dark wood and river gorge with no concrete in sight; Yufuin sits on a plain under a mountain; Beppu has more hot water than anywhere else in Japan, plus its famous "hells" — vividly coloured pools that are strictly for looking at, far too hot to enter.
• Further afield — Noboribetsu in Hokkaido with seven different waters, Nyūtō in Akita where one inn has been running for three hundred years, and Okuhida in the Gifu mountains, known for enormous open-air baths.

How do you book an onsen stay?

Onsen ryokan book up further ahead than ordinary hotels — the best rooms in popular towns can be gone six months out, which is well beyond the two to three months that works elsewhere in Japan. Autumn foliage weekends are the hardest of all, and winter — the season of the outdoor bath with snow falling into it — books nearly as far ahead in the snow country.

When comparing inns, look at the photographs on the inn's own website rather than only the booking site's, and check the Google reviews for guest photos of the bath. Booking-site images are often the most flattering angle of the smallest pool.

Compare hotel prices for your dates. Choosing the right base, and judging the hotels once you are looking at them, is covered in our guide to where to stay in Japan.