OnsenQuest

Prefectures / Shimane

Gozenyu (Arifuku Onsen public bath)

有福温泉 御前湯 · Arifuku Onsen

Policy not published (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

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

Verified by the editor

View1
Water4
Comfort3.5
Setting4
Access3
×Somewhere to sit — Bathe and leave
△Anything else nearby — Nearby, but off to one side

The centrepiece of a tiny hot-spring village of red-tiled roofs and stone steps in the hills behind Gotsu, and at 400 yen one of the cheapest genuinely good baths in Shimane. The water is undiluted and unheated, alkaline and noticeably soft, and it runs from 7:00 to 22:00 - a long window for a village bathhouse. There is nothing to look at from the tub and nowhere to sit afterwards; the point is to walk between the three bathhouses. Getting here means a half-hour bus from Hamada or Gotsu, so allow for the timetable.

Every onsen on this site is scored against the same written rubric, and every score has been reviewed by the editor. The ones marked Visited were also bathed in personally.

The baths

Indoor bath

The hottest of Arifuku's three bathhouses, and the one to pick in cold weather. Free-flowing alkaline water that comes out of the rock face with no heating and no water added; it feels slippery on the skin, which is where the 'beauty spring' reputation comes from. The building is the town's landmark - a retro-modern bathhouse at the top of the stone steps.

Open to day visitors

Practical details

Day visits
Yes — you can bathe without staying overnight.
7:00-22:00 (last entry 21:30). Closed Tuesdays, but open through the New Year holidays.
Day visit price
¥400
400 yen from junior-high age up, 200 yen for primary-school children, free for younger children. A hairdryer, shampoo and body soap are provided. The same 400 yen buys any of Arifuku's three public baths, which is what the town's bath-hopping is built on.
Staying overnight
No
Getting there
About 30 minutes by bus from either JR Hamada or JR Gotsu Station on the San'in Main Line, getting off at Arifuku Onsen, then roughly 3 minutes on foot. About 15 minutes by car from the Hamada-Higashi interchange or 10 from Gotsu-Nishi on the San'in Expressway.
Official website
www.arifuku-onsen.com/bathhouse/detail?id=266

Visit the official website ↗

Staying nearby

The links below are affiliate links — we may earn a commission if you book through them, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what we list or how we score it.

Where to stay in Arifuku OnsenBooking.com ↗Day-pass tickets and coupons for ShimaneAsoview (Japanese-language site) ↗

About the day-pass link: Asoview is the main place day-use onsen in Japan sell entry tickets and discount coupons in advance. It is a Japanese-only site, so use your browser’s translation — you show the ticket on your phone at the door.

What we have not confirmed

We would rather show a gap than guess.