OnsenQuest

Prefectures / Tochigi

Nasu Onsen Shika no Yu

那須温泉 鹿の湯 · Nasu 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
Water5
Comfort3
Setting4
Access3
—Somewhere to sit — not checked
○Anything else nearby — In the middle of things

The oldest and most uncompromising bath in Nasu, and the reason the whole resort exists. The water is a simple acidic sulphur spring (hydrogen-sulphide type, pH under 3, over 42 degrees at source) poured straight into six wooden tubs sorted by temperature, so you choose your own heat rather than the other way round. There is no view - the bathhouse is entirely indoors - and no soap is allowed, so treat it as a 15-minute cure bath and wash somewhere else. The house method (ladle hot water over the back of your head 100-300 times before entering, then soak in short bursts) is posted at the door and worth following.

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

A wooden bathhouse over the source itself. Six tubs graded by temperature - 41, 42, 43, 44, 46 and 48 degrees; the women's side has five (no 48-degree tub). Soap and shampoo are banned outright because the sulphur water does not lather and makes the floor dangerous, so this is a soak, not a wash.

Open to day visitors

Practical details

Day visits
Yes — you can bathe without staying overnight.
8:00-18:00 (last entry 17:30). Open all year, with occasional closures for maintenance.
Day visit price
¥500
Adults 500 yen, primary-school children 300 yen, pre-school children free. A half-day toji (cure-bathing) pass is 1,200 yen on weekdays and 1,500 yen at weekends and on public holidays. Lockers cost 100-200 yen. Cash only - no credit cards.
Staying overnight
No
Getting there
At 181 Yumoto, Nasu Town, at the top of the Nasu Yumoto hot-spring village. Take a Kanto Bus service bound for Nasu Yumoto / Nasu Ropeway from the west exit of Kuroiso Station or Nasu-Shiobara Shinkansen Station and get off at Nasu Yumoto; the bathhouse is a short walk down the slope. About 50 parking spaces for drivers.
Official website
www.shikanoyu.jp

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 Nasu OnsenAgoda ↗Compare on Booking.comBooking.com ↗Day-pass tickets and coupons for Nasu OnsenAsoview (Japanese-language site) ↗

Why Agoda for Japan: it lists a lot of ryokan and small inns that the Western booking sites never picked up, and it usually prices Japanese properties in yen, so you are not paying a conversion spread on top of the room rate. Worth comparing before you book — the difference on a ryokan is often larger than you would expect.

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.