OnsenQuest

Prefectures / Shimane

Kokumin-shukusha Sanbe-so

国民宿舎さんべ荘 · Sanbe Onsen

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

Verified by the editor

View3.5
Water4.5
Comfort4
Setting5
Access2
△Somewhere to sit — A small rest area
△Anything else nearby — Nearby, but off to one side

Sixteen open-air tubs in a national park on the flank of Mount Sanbe, in iron-bearing chloride water that comes out at over 3,000 litres a minute - enough that two of the tubs are left completely unheated as raw source water to alternate with the hot ones. Working through the ceramic, cypress, barrel and cauldron baths is the whole point, and it is unusual value at 800 yen. It is a publicly run lodge rather than a design ryokan, and it is genuinely remote: 50 minutes by bus from Ota-shi Station, so most people drive. The price rose on 1 August 2026.

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

Open-air bath

Sixteen open-air baths across the men's and women's sides, fed by a spring flowing at over 3,000 litres a minute: a rock bath and then a run of one- and two-person tubs made from ceramic, cypress, a boat, a cauldron, a goemon tub and sake barrels. The two right at the back - the sake barrel and the silver cauldron - are raw source water with no heating at all, so in winter they run close to cold and are meant to be alternated with the hot ones.

Open to day visitors

Indoor bath

Indoor bath in the same water. A 2020 analysis added iron to the spring classification at 29.1 mg, among the highest readings in the prefecture, so the water can run a deep red-brown once it oxidises.

Open to day visitors

Practical details

Day visits
Yes — you can bathe without staying overnight.
10:30-21:00 (last entry 20:00). No fixed closing day, but hours are cut in busy periods.
Day visit price
¥800
800 yen for adults (junior-high age and up), 600 yen for over-65s on weekdays, 400 yen for primary-school children and 200 yen for ages 3 to pre-school. Prices went up on 1 August 2026 because of fuel costs, so listings still showing 650 yen are out of date.
Staying overnight
Yes
from about ¥13,350 per person
Getting there
In Shigaku, Sanbe-cho, inside Daisen-Oki National Park on the loop road around Mount Sanbe. About 50 minutes by bus or 30 by car from JR Ota-shi Station; 40 minutes from the Izumo interchange on the San'in Expressway. 70 free parking spaces, and the building has step-free access, a lift and an accessible toilet.
Official website
www.sanbe-sou.jp

Visit the official website ↗

Book it

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Check rates and availabilityBooking.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.