Takahan — Hotel in Yuzawa

My stay at the Takahan Ryokan was wonderful thanks to the welcoming staff, classic room layout and view, and history of the property.||||I arrived at Gala Yuzawa Station a little before the official check-in time (3:00 pm) but was still picked up within five minutes after calling. The staff member on the phone spoke good English, as did the two staff members - both non-Japanese - who welcomed me at the hotel. Everyone was patient and went out of their way to help me and answer questions.||||One staff member led me up to my room on the fifth floor of the hotel, showing me the entrance to the baths from the hot spring presumably under the property and the room Kawabata Yasunari wrote "Snow Country" in, both on the first floor, along the way. I was really happy with the room, which was quite large by Japanese standards and had a great view. As another reviewer noted, the amenities in the room are dated, but I thought that just added to the charm.||||As a fan of Kawabata Yasunari, I really enjoyed the history of the place and the chance to look out on the town from the same vantage point he described in his novel. The comfortable seating - with tea set - on the room's balcony/veranda made this especially enjoyable to do.||||Overall, my stay at the Takahan was one of the most memorable and enjoyable I've had. Highly...

A couple things to note/that I wish I had known before I stayed here.

First, if you take the high speed rail, you have to call/contact the hotel shuttle to pick you up beforehand. The public shuttle doesn’t drop you off here. We didn’t know that so we got dropped off at the bottom of the hill with luggages and had make our way up hotel to the top of a hill in the snow in the dark. It did make for nice views the next morning but it’s not something I would do if I could avoid it.

Second, you need to book dinner reservations in advance. After we checked in, we were told there was no dinner availability, no room service and not even a vending machine or shop to get snacks. We had to taxi out to Echigo Yuzawa station to get food to bring back to our group of old and young, who had to wait until 9pm for us to get back. It was a slight struggle communicating in English.

Third, the rooms are large but all the beds are futon on the floor. My mom has a bad back and requested a bed off the floor which they did bring in. There’s a lot of old decor in the room including pairings and dolls which creeped some of us out. The bathrooms are pretty small compared to the size of the room. They charge per person and not by room, so unless you use the hot springs it’s not really worth it. The hotel is historical which...

Rooms are ryokan, you get your tatami and your futon. However there is a very bad smell in the bathroom and toilet, might be due to sewage.

Note that the taps do not provide drinking water, huge rust deposit when I first turned it on. They provided one flask of ice water and one kettle of hot water. A look into the kettle discouraged me from drinking it. I saw a fibre inside, and the kettle is heavily rusted. Had to get drinking water from L1.

The rooms get stinkbugs which you need to call the front desk to get bug catching help. Otherwise they are relatively not moving bugs which you can help yourself.

The onsen is very small, with 2 hot pools and 1 cold pool, and you have your own basket of towel to bring.

The owner is very very helpful in getting us around the town, i wanted to get the public free buses but he said the hotel shuttle is more convenient. Just show their name card to the tourist information center and they will come pick you in 10 minutes.

Breakfast is lack lustre, they gave us a timeslot to come at 8.30am, but many food already ran out and not refilled.

Shout out to the chinese staff there,...