Otakinoyu

草津温泉大滝乃湯 · Kusatsu Onsen

Tattoos OK (day visit)

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

Yes — tattoos are fine here

Tattoos are accepted in the main baths.

Source: official website · checked 2026-08-29

How it scores

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

Rated from research

Water5

Comfort4

Setting3

Access4

○Somewhere to sit — You can spend the day here

○Anything else nearby — In the middle of things

The strongest spring-quality case of Kusatsu's three town baths: undiluted Nikawa-source water and the awase-yu sequence you cannot try anywhere else in the village. The open-air bath looks onto a walled garden rather than a landscape, and the setting is the middle of a hot-spring town, not wilderness. There is a restaurant, a lounge cafe and a free 50-tatami rest area in the basement, so it works as a half-day stop.

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

The baths

Indoor bath

Otakinoyu is the one place in Kusatsu built around awase-yu, the local ritual of moving through a row of tubs that get progressively hotter (roughly 38C up to 46C). The water is never diluted; it is cooled by running it through the tubs in sequence. The men's and women's awase-yu are built differently. Water comes from the Nikawa source, a spring no other bathhouse in the village pipes in quantity. On the 2nd and 4th Saturday of each month the pipes are descaled and the water runs milky (hakudaku no hi).

Open to day visitors

Open-air bath

Open-air bath with a hot-water cascade. NOTE: the men's open-air bath is out of use 17 August to 17 September 2026 for renovation work; the women's side is unaffected.

Open to day visitors

Private (kashikiri) bath

Private bath 'Shakunage', 2,000 yen per hour on top of admission, reservation required at the front desk, 9:00-19:00 (last reception 18:00). It is barrier-free and is the only bath in the building where men and women can bathe together.

Open to day visitors

A private bath means nobody else is in the water with you — often the practical answer if the shared baths are closed to tattooed guests.

Practical details

Day visits: Yes — you can bathe without staying overnight.
9:00-21:00 (last entry 20:00)
Day visit price: ¥1,200
Adults 1,200 yen, children (3 to elementary school age) 600 yen; holders of a disability certificate pay half. A book of ten adult tickets costs 10,800 yen. Renovation from 17 August to 17 September 2026 closes the MEN'S awase-yu and the MEN'S open-air bath, and men's adult admission is cut to 1,000 yen for that period. The private bath and the paid tatami rooms are charged on top of admission.
Staying overnight: No
Getting there: About a 12-minute walk from Kusatsu Onsen Bus Terminal, or 7-8 minutes from the Yubatake hot-water field, with signposts on the way. To reach Kusatsu itself, take the JR bus (about 25 minutes) from Naganohara-Kusatsuguchi Station on the JR Agatsuma Line to Kusatsu Onsen Bus Terminal; the JR limited express Kusatsu from Ueno takes about 2 hours 20 minutes to Naganohara-Kusatsuguchi. 100 free parking spaces for bathers only.
Official website: onsen-kusatsu.com/ohtakinoyu

Visit the official website ↗

Staying nearby

Where to stay in Kusatsu OnsenBooking.com ↗