Ryukyu Onsen Naminoue no Yu (Hotel Sansui Naha)

Verified by the editor

The reason to come here is the tattoo policy rather than the setting. Okinawa refuses tattooed bathers almost everywhere, and this is the one place that says yes in writing: sign a declaration form at the desk and you can use the main baths uncovered. The water itself is real - an iodine-rich sodium chloride spring from 500 m down, high-tonicity and salty enough that you feel it on your skin afterwards. Indoor and open-air baths on two floors, but you are in the middle of Naha and there is nothing to look at. Naminoue Beach and the shrine are a walk away.

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.