Dogo Onsen Honkan 2026: Tickets From ¥700, What You Can Book

Dogo Onsen Honkan (道後温泉本館), the historic public bathhouse in Matsuyama, has been fully open again since July 11, 2024, after restoration work.

There are six admission options. Four are bought on the day at the outdoor ticket booth, from ¥700 for a basic soak to ¥2,500 for a 3rd-floor private room. The other two are private-hire rooms you book ahead.

Those two rooms and a guided tour of the imperial bath are the only things you can reserve at the Honkan. Everything else is sold on the day, and when it's busy, you take a numbered queue ticket and wait to be called.

The official Dogo Onsen site shows live wait times. Check it before you head over; it gives you a good idea of whether you'll need a queue ticket.

The six tickets compared

The Honkan has two shared baths: Kami-no-Yu (神の湯), which every ticket includes, and Tama-no-Yu (霊の湯), included from the ¥2,000 ticket up.

Prices are for adults (12 and up); children aged 2–11 pay half, though the per-group charge for the private-hire rooms stays the same. Tickets are valid only on the day you buy them.

The official site doesn't say whether yukata come with the private-hire rooms; ask when you book.

The downstairs bath runs 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., and the other walk-in tickets 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Every morning at 6, a drum in the Shinrokaku (振鷺閣) tower on the roof sounds six times to signal opening time.

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The building closes for one day of cleaning each December. The 2026 date hasn't been announced, so if you're visiting in December, call the bathhouse at +81-89-921-5141 (089-921-5141 from within Japan).

Choosing a ticket

If all you want is a soak, the ¥700 downstairs ticket does the job. Neither Kami-no-Yu ticket includes towels, so bring your own or rent one at the shop (¥110 for a towel, ¥320 for a bath towel). Shampoo and body soap are provided in the Kami-no-Yu bath.

If you can, spend a bit more and go upstairs. To me, sitting in the second-floor hall afterward in a yukata, sipping tea, is the whole point of the Honkan. That starts at ¥1,300 with the Kami-no-Yu 2nd-floor ticket.

The Tama-no-Yu 2nd-floor ticket is ¥700 more. It adds a soak in Tama-no-Yu, towels and a self-guided look at the Yushinden (又新殿), Japan's only bath built exclusively for the imperial family. It's for viewing only; no one bathes there.

The 3rd-floor private room and the private-hire rooms are rooms to relax in, with no bath of their own. Everyone bathes in the shared Kami-no-Yu and Tama-no-Yu.

For a bath to yourselves, book the family bath on the 2nd floor of Asuka-no-Yu (飛鳥乃湯泉), a separate public bathhouse nearby. It's booked on the same reservation site as the private-hire rooms (see below).

For groups, a private-hire room can cost less per person. Hisho-no-Ma undercuts the ¥2,500 3rd-floor private room once you have three people (¥6,900 total, ¥2,300 each).

Hisho-no-Ma is the cheaper of the two rooms for any group it can hold (up to 10). Shirasagi-no-Ma makes sense for 11 to 18 people, or when Hisho-no-Ma's slots are taken.

Reservations: private-hire rooms and the Yushinden tour

The two private-hire rooms, the guided Yushinden tour (¥500, 9 a.m.–5 p.m., separate from the self-guided viewing included with Tama-no-Yu tickets) and the Asuka-no-Yu family bath are booked on the Dogo Onsen reservation site.

Booking opens 90 days ahead and closes at 10 p.m. the day before. Cancel by 10 p.m. the day before; on the day itself, cancel by email or phone.

Same-day bookings for the private-hire rooms are by phone only, at +81-89-921-5141. For the Asuka-no-Yu family bath, go in person or call +81-89-932-1126.

Each private-hire room can be booked by up to five groups a day.

Shirasagi-no-Ma starts at 6:30 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 3:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.; Hisho-no-Ma at 8 a.m., 11 a.m., 2 p.m., 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.

If you've booked a private-hire room, skip the line and tell the staff at the outdoor ticket booth. You don't need a queue ticket.

Queue tickets at busy times

At busy times, you register at a terminal, entering your ticket type, party size and contact number, and get a paper queue ticket. One person can register for the whole group. Ask the staff where the terminal is and what time it starts issuing tickets.

When your turn is near, you get a phone call. If you don't arrive within 15 minutes of the call, your place is canceled automatically, so stay close enough to get back in time.

The call comes to the number you enter, so you'll need a phone that can take calls in Japan. If you don't have one, ask the staff at the outdoor booth before you register.

Once you're back, show your queue ticket at the outdoor booth, buy your bath ticket, put your shoes in a shoe locker and show the bath ticket at reception.

If the wait-time display says admissions for your ticket have ended for the day ("本日案内終了" on the Japanese page), the day's queue tickets for it have run out, and you can't bathe on that ticket today.

The same display covers the other ticket types and Dogo's two other public bathhouses, Asuka-no-Yu and Tsubaki-no-Yu (椿の湯), so you can switch to whichever still has room.

Payment, lockers and bath rules

The bathhouse takes credit and debit cards, transit IC cards, e-money and QR payments, including Visa, Mastercard, Suica, ICOCA, Alipay and WeChat Pay.

Lockers in the changing rooms and the shoe lockers are free. There are coin lockers (¥100 or ¥200) at the shop.

No photos in the changing rooms or baths. Keep towels out of the water, and don't bathe in a swimsuit or with a towel wrapped around you. The 1st-floor shop sells bathing garments that cover surgical scars and similar marks (¥500).

Getting there

The bathhouse is a 3- to 5-minute walk from Dogo Onsen Station on the Iyotetsu tram. From JR Matsuyama Station, the tram bound for Dogo Onsen takes about 25 minutes (¥250 for adults, ¥230 with a transit IC card).

From Matsuyama Airport, the limousine bus to Dogo Onsen Station takes about 43 minutes.