OnsenQuest

Prefectures / Gunma

Hoshi Onsen Chojukan

法師温泉 長寿館

Policy not published (day visit)Policy not published (overnight)

Can you bathe here with a tattoo?

This is the question we built the site around, so we answer it per situation.

Visiting for the day

They have not said

The tattoo policy is not stated publicly. Please contact the facility.

Staying overnight

They have not said

The tattoo policy is not stated publicly. Please contact the facility.

How it scores

Every onsen on this site is scored on the same five things.

ViewWaterComfortSettingAccess

Rated from research

View3
Water5
Comfort4.5
Setting5
Access1.5
×Somewhere to sit — Bathe and leave
×Anything else nearby — Nothing else around

Water rising through the floor of the tub in a 130-year-old wooden bath hall is about as good as spring quality gets in Japan, and the building itself is a registered cultural property. The bath looks inward at its own arched windows rather than out at scenery, so the view score is moderate; the setting - a lone inn at the head of a forested valley - is a straight five. Access is the catch: four buses a day and nothing else nearby, which is precisely why it is quiet.

Scored from official photos, maps and transport information — not from a visit.

The baths

Indoor bath

Hoshi-no-yu, built in 1895, is one of the few ashimoto-yushutsu baths in Japan - the water rises through the gravel floor of the tub itself, so it reaches you without ever touching the air. Arched windows, heavy beams, a Meiji-era Rokumeikan look; it is a nationally registered tangible cultural property. IT IS A MIXED BATH, and this one is strict: you may NOT wear a bathing garment and you may NOT wrap yourself in a towel. There is a women-only window from 20:00 to 22:00 for staying guests. Chojyu-no-yu is the other floor-fed bath, smaller but with the highest ratio of fresh water to tub volume in the inn; it is men-only until 20:00 and women-only after.

Open to day visitors

Open-air bath

Tamaki-no-yu is a cypress bath house opening onto an outdoor bath, on a newer source that is heated and recirculated rather than floor-fed. It is men-only 20:00-7:00 and closed for preparation 10:00-15:00, which is exactly the day-use window, so day visitors cannot use it.

Overnight guests only

Practical details

Day visits
Yes — you can bathe without staying overnight.
11:00-14:00 (reception 11:00-13:30); closed Wednesdays for cleaning, plus irregular days
Day visit price
¥1,500
Adults (junior high and up) 1,500 yen, children 3 to elementary school age 500 yen. During Silver Week, 19-23 September 2026, the adult day rate rises to 2,000 yen, and day bathing is cancelled on 15 and 16 September 2026. Numbers are capped and reception can close early - on Sundays and long weekends it sometimes fills by late morning. A bath-plus-lunch package (Hoshi Gozen, 6,000 yen, minimum two people, advance booking) is also available; food service ends at 12:30. Bath towel rental and face towel sales on site.
Staying overnight
Yes
Getting there
A single inn at the head of a valley in Minakami town, near the Gunma-Niigata border - not part of the Minakami Onsen cluster on the Tone River. Leave the Kan-Etsu Expressway at Tsukiyono or Yuzawa IC. By bus, only four town-bus services a day reach Hoshi from Sarugakyo (two morning, two afternoon); from Jomo-Kogen Station the connections are 9:30 (arrive 10:21), 13:10 (arrive 13:48) and 14:25 (arrive 15:03), returning at 14:04 and 15:14. Outside those times take a taxi from Sarugakyo. Winter visitors should carry chains.
Official website
hoshi-onsen.com

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Book it

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What we have not confirmed

We would rather show a gap than guess.