Sakaburo Yunosawa (Ponshukan, Echigo-Yuzawa Station)
ぽんしゅ館 越後湯沢驛店 酒風呂 湯の沢
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
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.
The baths
Indoor bath
Hot spring water with local sake added to it - the gimmick that gives the bath its name - inside the Ponshukan sake museum in the station building. Men's side has 7 showers, women's side 4; there are coin-operated massage chairs. Small and functional rather than scenic: the appeal is that you can bathe between trains without leaving the station.
Practical details
- Day visits
- Yes — you can bathe without staying overnight.10:30-18:30 (last reception 18:00); extended to 19:00 (last reception 18:30) on some dates. Hours change by season.
- Day visit price
- ¥950Adults (junior high school and above) 950 yen including the 150 yen bathing tax; elementary school children 400 yen. A towel set (bath towel plus face towel) rents for 200 yen, which is what most travellers arriving with a suitcase will need. Hours shift with the season, so check the date you are travelling.
- Staying overnight
- No
- Getting there
- Inside JR Echigo-Yuzawa Station itself, in the Ponshukan complex on the concourse - you do not leave the ticket gates area of the station building. Echigo-Yuzawa is roughly 70 to 80 minutes from Tokyo on the Joetsu Shinkansen, which makes this the easiest hot spring bath in Japan to reach from Tokyo as a day trip, and the standard stop for skiers with time to kill before a train.
- Official website
- www.ponshukan.com/yuzawa
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.
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.
- The tattoo policy for day visits is not stated on the official website.
More onsen in Niigata
Checked the same way: tattoo policy, private baths and day visits.