Sakura Yu Onsen - A Tattoo-Friendly Hot Spring in Beppu Onsen, Oita

A covered walkway leads you past a courtyard garden and a cat who watches from the railing like he owns the place — because he does. Kancho, Sakura Yu's resident cat, is the unofficial greeter at this Beppu day-use onsen, and past him, the garden opens into a sprawling complex of private baths named after cherry blossom varieties.

Sakura Yu is built around a simple idea: every bath is yours alone. Twenty private rooms ring a central courtyard, each with a different character — hinoki cypress, granite, porcelain, stone, barrel, kettle. You pick from what's available at the front desk, take a coin to your room, and drop it in the timer. The tub fills fresh from the source. Nobody bathed in that water before you, and nobody will after. Between soaks, a second-floor café looks down over the garden, and the courtyard shifts with the season — cherry blossoms in spring, maples turning in autumn.

If you're in Beppu with tattoos and want a private onsen experience with real variety — not one generic tub behind a locked door — Sakura Yu offers more choice under one roof than most facilities in the city.

• Twenty Private Baths, Each Different: Hinoki cypress, granite, porcelain, stone, barrel, and kettle-style tubs — pick the material and size that suits you, not the one room that happens to be available.
• Fresh Source Water Every Session: A coin-operated system fills each tub from the hot spring for every guest. No shared water, no previous bathers — clean by design.
• Private Bathing for Tattooed Guests: Communal areas restrict visible tattoos, but the private family baths let tattooed guests bathe in privacy with full access to Beppu's spring water.
• Garden Setting with Seasonal Views: Each private bath opens onto a small garden, and the central courtyard shifts through cherry blossoms, summer green, autumn foliage, and bare winter branches.

The water comes in hot — hot enough that most bathers reach for the cold tap before settling in. It's an alkaline spring, clear and soft on the skin, with none of the heavy mineral smell you get at Beppu's sulfur springs. Each private room has its own small garden visible through the window, so even indoors you're looking at green.

The variety is the draw. A hinoki tub holds heat differently than a granite basin. The barrel baths feel more enclosed, the stone baths more open. Regulars work through them over multiple visits. The communal bath, separate from the private rooms, has both an indoor hinoki tub and a small rotenburo surrounded by trees — though for tattooed bathers, the private rooms are the better path. After soaking, the second-floor café and garden walkways give you a reason to stay longer than the timer on your coin.