Arimakan — Hotel in Kaminoyama

My friend and I stayed in Arimakan for two nights. It was the first time for us going north in Japan and we did know next to nothing about Yamagata or Kaminoyama. The Arimakan staff was super friendly and girls from Taiwan and Thailand are supporting the Japanese employees with translation to ensure smooth communication with foreign guests. We got great advice for what to do in the area and where to go. The Kaminoyama Castle and a street with old samurai houses are just a 10 minute walk from Arimakan. |We were surprised to meet other guests around our age. Usually, you only meet a bunch of elderly or middle-aged people in places like Arimakan. |The building, while kind of retro, is very clean and bright. We felt welcome from the moment we entered. The staff is very friendly and helpful and our rooms were super nice with a great view of the surrounding mountains. We especially liked the beds instead of futons, as we both had our share of "experiencing traditional Japanese sleeping" on the floor. |The baths are nice and warm. (Trivia: Apparently, Arimakan owns the source of the hot spring in the area.) They rotate the baths for men and women and the outside baths on the roof can be reserved for private use in the evening. |The best part, however, was the vegetarian meal option. If you ever found a Japanese restaurant that shows understanding for your (self-imposed) dietary restrictions, you were probably either in a very very touristy area or incredibly lucky. Usually, they just tell you in a very friendly manner, that their traditional cooking is not suitable for a vegetarian and are generally not very willing to compromise. In Arimakan, however, we got a full course evening meal with no meat or fish. A very colorful and tasty variation of vegetables, tofu dishes, soup, and noodles. |We will...

We stayed one night here and quite enjoyed our stay. Compared to other ryokans I have stayed in Japan for a similar price point I would say it is a bit above average.||||When we arrived in Kamoniyama onsen station, we went to the tourist information center and asked them to call Arimakan for a pickup. This was an easy and smooth experience.||||For Dinner and Breakfast, I thought it was better than the average ryokan I have stayed at. We at in the dinning room for both breakfast and dinner. One of my travelling companions was vegetarian as well as did not eat egg. I was able to arrange this through email when I booked the room, so that is a big plus for this place. She said the vegetarian food was actually quite good. Me and my wife enjoyed the food here, where we had a good variety as well as a good quantity of food, which included some beef as well as some seafood.||||I did not go to the public onsen, but went to the free one they offered on the top floor that you could book when you checked in. It was quite nice, very large and well maintained. The only downside was that there were strangely no showers there, so we took a shower in our room before going there. Also I am not sure if it was the natural water, but we found it smelled a bit like chlorine or something like it. So I thought it was a great private experience, but the water itself wasn't my favorite.||||The room itself was standard, which was nice and clean.||||The check in was pretty smooth, with a woman from Thailand checking us in. I found the check in fine, but I found check out much friendlier when a Japanese woman at the front checked us out and drove us to the station. ||||If I am in Kaminoyama area again, I would stay here again. ...

Staying in Arimakan was a wonderful experience. My husband and I stayed in this Ryokan with great onsen baths as a part of our honemoon trip to Japan. Our stay in Arimakan was very relaxing and it was great to have a little break from busy cities like Tokyo, Osaka etc. Kaminoyama is a lovely city surrounded by mountains. We went for a few trips with amazing views from the mountain tops. ||The hotel's onsen is amazing and is a very relaxing expierience. The hotel provides a few different baths that you can book for free. We did enjoy the open air private one on the top of the roof a lot . ||Food in Arimakan is sooo delicious. We had our dinner and breakfast served to our room by very kind and friendly staff. The diversity of the dishes served was so wide and everything was very tasty. A great opportunity to try a lot of different traditional Japanese dishes. ||The hotel is situated in a very peaceful, nice area, very close to Kaminoyama-onsen train station.||I highly recommend Arimakan to everyone who would like to experience real traditional Japan, food and of course, Onsen. ||Thanks a lot to Arimakan staff for a great stay and...