Most onsen anxiety comes from a small number of rules, and almost all of them exist for one reason: the water is shared and never drained between guests. Once that clicks, the etiquette stops feeling like a test and starts feeling obvious.
This guide covers the rules that actually matter. It does not list prices or opening hours, because those change per facility and belong on the bath’s own page.
The one rule everything else follows from
You wash completely before you get in. The bath is for soaking, not for cleaning. Inside the bathing area there are seated shower stations with a stool, a bowl, soap and shampoo. Sit down, wash properly, and rinse every trace of soap off before you go near the bath.
If you take nothing else from this page, take that. A visitor who washes thoroughly and stays quiet will not offend anyone, even if they get a smaller detail wrong.
Many people also pour a few bowls of hot water over themselves before entering — kakeyu. It rinses you once more and lets your body adjust instead of hitting hot water cold.
Getting in: the sequence
- Shoes off at the entrance, into the shoe rack or a locker.
- Split by gender at the curtains. Red usually marks the women’s side, blue the men’s. The characters are 女 (women) and 男 (men) — worth memorising, because the curtain colours are not guaranteed.
- Undress completely in the changing room and leave everything in a basket or locker. Onsen bathing is nude. Swimwear stays out of the water.
- Take only the small towel into the bathing area. The large towel stays behind for drying afterwards.
- Wash and rinse at a shower station.
- Enter slowly. The water is often hotter than it looks.
The small towel
You are given two towels: a large one for drying, and a small one you carry into the bathing area. The small towel is for modesty while walking and for wiping down afterwards.
It does not go in the water. Rest it on the side of the bath, or fold it and set it on your head — the classic image, and genuinely practical.
Long hair should be tied up or wrapped so it stays out of the water too.
Tattoos: the honest situation
This is the question we get asked most, and the honest answer is that it depends entirely on the individual facility.
Some baths refuse tattoos outright. Some allow them if covered with a patch. Some have no policy at all. Attitudes have been softening as more visitors arrive, but there is no national rule and no reliable way to guess from the outside.
What actually works:
- Check that specific facility before you travel. Its own website or a phone call is the only reliable answer. Do not rely on a blog list — policies change.
- Cover-up patches are widely sold and accepted at some facilities. They only work for small tattoos.
- Book a private bath. This is the reliable route, and it is worth planning around rather than hoping.
Private baths are underrated
A kashikiri-buro (reserved private bath) or a room with its own bath removes almost every source of stress at once: tattoos, body-image nerves, bathing with strangers, travelling as a mixed-gender couple or family, or helping someone who needs assistance.
Many ryokan offer private baths by reservation, sometimes free for guests and sometimes for a fee. If any of the above applies to you, treat a private bath as the default and the public bath as optional. It changes which properties you should be shortlisting, so decide this before you book, not after you arrive.
Things that quietly cause problems
- Photos. Never in the changing or bathing area. Phones stay in the locker. This is the fastest way to get asked to leave.
- Swimming, splashing, loud conversation. It is a quiet space.
- Dunking your head or towel.
- Alcohol before bathing. Hot water plus alcohol is a genuine health risk, not just bad manners.
- Wringing your towel out over the bath.
- Dripping into the changing room. Wipe down with the small towel before you walk back in.
Looking after yourself
Onsen water is hot and many baths are deeper or more mineral-heavy than a home bath. Get out before you feel light-headed rather than after. Drink water before and after. If you have heart or blood-pressure conditions, are pregnant, or are drinking alcohol that day, treat long or very hot soaks as something to check with a doctor rather than something to push through.
Short soaks with breaks are normal and comfortable — you do not have to stay in.
At a ryokan specifically
- The yukata provided is worn around the building, including to the bath. Left side folds over right.
- Baths are often switched between genders at some point overnight, so the layout you used in the evening may be the other side by morning. Check the curtain each time.
- Public baths usually close for cleaning at some point overnight and reopen early. Confirm the window at check-in.
- Tattoo policy is set by the property. If it matters, resolve it at booking.
Where to try it
Several routes on this site are built around onsen towns, and the etiquette above applies to all of them equally. The Hakone loop is the usual first onsen trip from Tokyo, and the short video guides cover Kusatsu, Shima, Kinugawa, Zao, Akiu, Aizu and others.
Official sources
Confirm the specific facility’s own rules before you go — these pages cover the general practice, not any individual bath.
- JNTO — How to best enjoy onsen: https://www.japan.travel/en/guide/how-to-best-enjoy-onsen/
- JNTO — Hot springs in Japan: https://www.japan.travel/en/see-and-do/onsen/
- JNTO — Japanese manners and etiquette: https://www.japan.travel/en/guide/understanding-and-mastering-japanese-manners-and-etiquette/
- JNTO — Onsen, tattoos and etiquette: https://www.japan.travel/en/uk/inspiration/onsen-hot-springs-on-tattoos-and-etiquette/
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