Guide · Etiquette

Tattoo-friendly onsen near Mount Fuji, and how to bathe

Onsen etiquette is simple once someone walks you through it, and the tattoo question has clearer answers near Mount Fuji than most guides admit. Here are the steps, the rules bath by bath, and your options with ink.

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Editorial team, mountfujionsen.comUpdated October 23, 2026read in 6 minutes33 sources

The tour that goes with it Fuji day trip with a hot spring stop 4.4 (127 reviews) 10 hours5th Station entry fee includedHot spring or outlet, your pick from$50per person Check availabilityFree to cancel until 24 hrs ahead

The rules, briefly

01Clothing: None: onsen bathing is done in the nude.¹
02Before the water: Wash and rinse fully at a washing station.²
03Towel: Keep the small towel out of the bath.³
04Tattoo-friendly: Konohana no Yu in Gotemba admits tattoos.⁴
05Tattoos not admitted: Yurari and Fuji Hakkei no Yu refuse them.⁵ ⁶

Why onsen manners matter

An onsen is shared water. Everyone soaks in the same bath, often in silence, and the rules exist to keep that water clean and that silence intact. JNTO, Japan's national tourism organization, sums up the core of it in a handful of points: undress fully, wash before you get in, keep towels and hair out of the water, speak softly and leave your phone outside.¹ ² ³ ⁷

None of it is hard, and staff and other bathers are usually patient with first-timers. The mistakes that do cause a stir are the obvious ones: getting into the bath unwashed, swimming, or holding a phone. Avoid those and you will be fine. Watch what the people around you do for the first minute, copy them, and you will learn the rhythm of the place faster than from any guide.

The tattoo question is different, because it is not about manners at all but about each bath's house rules. Those rules vary from one building to the next, even on the same street, and a bath has every right to apply its own. The good news is that near Mount Fuji the main baths state their rules clearly.

Step by step

Your first onsen, in order

At the door

Shoes off

Into a locker before the changing room.⁸
Changing room

Undress fully

Swimwear stays behind; take the small towel.¹
Washing area

Wash and rinse

Soap, shampoo, then a full rinse.²
Bath edge

Kakeyu

Pour hot water over yourself to adjust.⁹
In the water

Towel on your head

Never in the bath; hair tied up.³ ¹⁰
Leaving

Dry off first

Wipe down before the changing room.¹¹

Bathing step by step

Take your shoes off at the entrance and put them in a locker; shoes never go into the changing room.⁸ Look for the curtains marked 女 for women and 男 for men, since changing rooms are always separated by gender, as are most of the baths themselves.¹² ¹³

In the changing room, everything comes off, swimwear included, and goes into a locker or basket.¹ Take only the small towel with you. Sit at a washing station, wash with the soap and shampoo provided, and rinse off completely.² Then pour some hot water from the bath over your body, a custom called kakeyu that lets you get used to the heat.⁹

Ease into the water slowly. Fold the small towel and rest it on your head or on the edge of the bath, and tie up long hair.³ ¹⁰ Afterwards, whether to rinse off the onsen water is up to you; many people leave it on their skin.¹⁴ Dry off a little before going back into the changing room so you do not drip on the floor. Stay in for short spells and take breaks on the edge or in the rest room; the water can feel hotter than a bath at home, and there is no prize for lasting longest.

Tattoo rules

What each bath near Fuji says about tattoos

Bath	Area	Tattoos	Covers
Konohana no Yu day bath	Gotemba	Welcome	Not needed
Yurari day bath	Narusawa	Not allowed	Sticker not accepted
Fuji Hakkei no Yu day bath	Gotemba	Not allowed	Not stated
Fujiyama Onsen (closed)	Fujiyoshida	Pages disagree	Its own stickers, per FAQ
Benifuji no Yu day bath	Yamanakako	Not allowed per a tour	Bandages, per that tour

From each bath's own pages, Odakyu's guide and tour listings; rules change, so confirm before you go.⁴ ⁵ ⁶ ¹⁵ ¹⁶

With a tattoo

A welcoming bath, a private tub or a cover

Tattoos welcome

Konohana no Yu

Day bath, Gotemba

Where: Outlet mall grounds
Also: 19 private baths
On our tour: A possible last stop

See the options

Bathe alone

A private bath

Kashikiriburo or room tub

Advice from: JNTO
Where: Inns and day baths
Booking: Often at the desk

See the options

Ask first

A cover sheet

Small tattoos only

Suits: Very small tattoos
Yurari: Not accepted
Rule: Check in advance

See the options

Decision helper

Where can you bathe with a tattoo?

Find your situation in the left column

I am on the day trip from Tokyo My tattoo is very small I am staying at Lake Kawaguchi I wanted to try Yurari

Konohana no Yu

The listing names it as the bath that admits tattoos.

Ask about a cover sheet

JNTO says cover sheets generally suit only very small tattoos.¹⁷

A room with its own bath

Ubuya lists a private open-air bath in several room types.¹⁸

Use the restaurant only

Bathing is refused, but the restaurant and massage are open to you.⁵

You may be able to get into an onsen that doesn't allow tattoos if you can cover your tattoos with some sort of sticker or patch, though it is best to check with the facility in advance about whether this is okay or not.

Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO)Source 19

Things not to do

Do not bring a phone or camera into the bathing area. JNTO calls it absolutely forbidden, out of respect for other bathers' privacy and children's in particular.²⁰ This rule is the one that most often catches visitors at baths with a famous view, so take your photos of the mountain from a rest room or a terrace.

Do not swim, splash or talk loudly, and do not drink alcohol before bathing, which JNTO warns can affect your judgment.⁷ ²¹ Do not wash clothes or your towel in the bath, and never let the towel touch the water.³ If you need to cool off, sit on the edge for a while rather than leaving the room in a rush. Keep a bottle of water in the changing room and drink between soaks.

Children follow local rules too. In Yamanashi Prefecture, an ordinance bars children aged 7 and over from the bath of the other sex, which shapes how a family splits up at the door.²² Younger children are welcome at many baths, but check each bath's rules on diapers and small children in advance.²³

Checklist

Onsen do's and don'ts

Do

Wash and rinse before you get in
Pour hot water over yourself first
Keep your voice low

Don't

Bring a phone or camera into the bath
Put your towel in the water
Drink alcohol before bathing

Video

How to Onsen in Japan (The Guide Every Tourist Needs)

The player loads on your tap, not before.

Why so many baths turn tattoos away

JNTO explains the taboo plainly: tattoos in Japan are associated with members of organized crime, and baths ban them so that other guests do not feel uneasy.²⁴ The rule says nothing about you; it is a blanket policy, and staff apply it without asking about the meaning of your tattoo.

The picture is changing slowly. JNTO cites a 2015 study by the Japan Tourism Agency in which about 30 percent of hotels and inns said they would allow someone with a tattoo to use their communal baths.²⁵ In a notice of 16 March 2016 to the hotel, ryokan and hot spring associations, the agency wrote that refusing a bath solely because of a tattoo is not appropriate.²⁶

The agency did not order baths to admit tattoos. It asked them to consider its examples: covering a tattoo with a sticker, no special measures for small tattoos that do not intimidate, bathing at hours with few families, and guiding guests to private baths.²⁷ ²⁸ ²⁹ It also noted that a tattoo causes no hygiene problem.³⁰

Tattoo-friendly onsen near Mount Fuji, bath by bath

The clearest yes is Konohana no Yu, the day bath in the grounds of Gotemba Premium Outlets. Odakyu's guide states that guests with tattoos are welcome, and the listing of our day trip says the same: Konohana no Yu admits tattoos, while the other hot springs on the tour do not.⁴

The clearest no comes from Fuji Chobo no Yu Yurari in Narusawa, which refuses bathing to anyone with a tattoo even when it is covered with a sticker, though tattooed guests may still use its restaurant and massage.⁵ Fuji Hakkei no Yu in Gotemba also refuses bathing to people with tattoos.⁶

Fujiyama Onsen in Fujiyoshida is closed for now, and its own pages disagree: the FAQ admits tattoos fully covered by up to two of its cover stickers, while the rules page refuses tattoo stickers.³¹ ¹⁵ ¹⁶ One tour to Benifuji no Yu at Lake Yamanaka says tattoos are not permitted there, but that bandages or a private bath for a fee are possible.

Your options if you have a tattoo

First, a bath that says yes. Near Fuji that means Konohana no Yu, which is also one of the possible last stops on the day trip sold here.⁴ If you book that tour, tell the guide in the morning that you want that bath, since the hot spring stop is a group choice.

Second, a private bath. JNTO's own advice is to look for tattoo-friendly places or book a kashikiriburo, a private bath you use alone.³² Konohana no Yu has 19 private open-air baths, and many ryokan around Lake Kawaguchi have rooms with their own open-air tub.³³ ¹⁸

Third, a cover. JNTO notes that many baths sell small tattoo cover sheets, but that they generally suit only very small tattoos, and that it is best to check in advance whether a cover is accepted.¹⁷ ¹⁹ At Yurari a sticker does not help; at baths that accept one, carry a few of your own and ask before you undress. Whatever route you take, a calm, polite question at reception goes much further than an argument once you are already undressed.

Tour days with a hot spring and the tattoo question

Tour listings state their rules too, and they differ. A private Hakone day trip says that every onsen it visits is tattoo friendly. A private Fuji day trip that ends at Konohananoyu labels its onsen tattoo-friendly.

A ski day from Tokyo with an onsen option warns that entry to the hot springs may be restricted if you have tattoos. That is the honest wording you will see on most listings: the operator does not run the bath, so it cannot promise you entry. The same caution applies to any tour whose bath is run by someone else.

Read the good-to-know section of any tour before you book, and if it says nothing, ask the operator through the booking page. A clear answer in writing beats an awkward conversation at a reception desk while the rest of the group waits.

Your Fuji day