A little escape.
A warmer welcome.
Tattoo-friendly baths. A moment to yourself. Find your kind of onsen in Hokkaido, with the details that help you feel at home.
AI atmosphere image · not a listed facility
Less hurry.
More ahhh.
The best part of the trip might be the moment you stop. A forest outside. Warm water all around. And a place that feels right for you.
Popular destinations
AI illustrations evoke city, mountain and lakeside settings; they do not depict the named destinations or facilities.
What each listing means
3. Fully Tattoo-Friendly
Facilities that welcome tattoos of any size, no questions asked.
View onsen →Stated in the facility's own words
The directory
What the evidence grade means
Known to refuse tattoos
Browse by onsen type
What an onsen actually is
An onsen is a natural hot spring bath, usually shared, that's been part of Japanese daily life for centuries — equal parts hygiene, relaxation, and social ritual. If this is your first time, here's what actually happens.
Wash first
Rinse and wash your body at the shower stalls before stepping into the bath. The water is shared, so this step isn't optional.
No swimsuit
Communal baths are bathed in nude, by design. A private bath (see above) is the way around this if that feels like too much for a first visit.
Quiet and unhurried
It's a place to soak and relax, not swim or chat loudly. Small hand towels stay out of the water, usually folded on your head or the side.
A yukata is provided
Ryokan and hotel onsen supply a robe for moving between your room and the bath — you don't need to bring anything.
Verified by a real person, not an algorithm
We contact the facility directly
By email or phone, in Japanese — always with the facility itself, never a scraped review or a traveler's secondhand account.
We ask the real questions
Tattoo policy, private bath availability, whether large groups can be accommodated, permission to use their official photos — and what makes the place itself worth choosing.
We publish only confirmed answers
Each listing shows the date it was last confirmed directly with the facility.
Run by a Japan-based, Japanese-speaking manager who handles every inquiry personally — not an overseas call center, not scraped listings, and not secondhand traveler reports.
Guides & travel tips
About Onsen Guide Japan
Who runs this
Onsen Guide Japan is run by one person: Toshifumi, a Japanese-speaking resident of Sapporo, Hokkaido, who works in IT infrastructure by day. No overseas call centre and no automated scraping — every listing is compiled and checked by hand, and every phone call or email to a facility is made in Japanese by the same person.
Our mission
To make onsen accessible to travellers who are usually told “no” — people with tattoos, families with young children, and anyone who simply wants a bath to themselves — by showing the exact condition at each facility, where that information came from, and how solid the source is. Hokkaido first, then the rest of Japan.
How listings are graded
Every listing carries an evidence grade, from A (the facility publishes the rule on its own site) down to E (the weakest, second-hand reports), with a link to the source. Nothing is stamped “verified” on the strength of traveller hearsay. When we confirm a policy directly with a facility by phone or email, the listing gets a gold “Confirmed by us” badge with the date and method — so you can see exactly which stage each entry is at.
For onsen owners
Run a facility in Hokkaido? If your listing is wrong or out of date, or you would like to confirm your policy on tattoos, private baths and group bookings, we would love to hear from you — in Japanese is fine. Confirmed facilities get the “Confirmed by us” badge, and we can add photos with your permission. Facilities that do not accept tattoos are listed too, clearly, so travellers don’t arrive somewhere they cannot bathe. A contact address will be published here shortly.