Ryokan Yakenoyu — Local services in Takayama

Ryokan: The traditional room was very spacious, with lots of floor space to place the futon. There is a toilet and sink, but no shower, so you'll have to get your shower at the onsen. Great view of the mountains from the room too. Breakfast and dinner are served at the dining hall. Food here has a home-made quality to them, and rotates every day so you wouldn't get bored. Also, be prepared to kneel, sit cross legged or stretch your legs out for an extended period of time.

Onsen: There are public indoor onsen, public outdoor onsen and private outdoor onsen. All onsen use natural hot spring water as you can easily tell from the distinct sulphur smell. The public indoor onsen is the only one with showers, but can be a little stuffy as the windows are mostly closed. The public outdoor onsen is sadly a miss, the temperature was lukewarm and I could stay in there for ages without feeling too hot. There are 2 private outdoor onsen. One of them I felt that the water was too hot, while the other was just right. Overall, I liked the private outdoor onsen the best!

Location: If possible, travel around these parts by car as it's pretty remote and there aren't many food options (if any) within walking distance. The nearest ATM is also 10 mins away by car so be prepared to carry cash with you. Thankfully, the owner of the Ryokan helped give us a lift so we could top up to have dinner during our stay. It is very close to some hiking trailheads so this is a great place to stay if you want to hike!

Service: Great service from this family run Ryokan! The feel you get here can be summed up as 'homely'. There were many times where they offered help, with or without us asking and we were very grateful for that. We asked and were able to help ourselves to their washing machine to do laundry. Once, we returned to the trailhead just as the sun was setting and the owner of the Ryokan drove up to us in a pickup truck and offered to drive us back to the Ryokan. I have no idea if he drove there on purpose to find us, or if it was a coincidence. On the day of our checkout, he drove us to the nearest bus stop (nakaokogen guchi) with hourly buses, which would have taken us 20-30min of walking downhill with our luggage in the rain. Best service we had in our...

This ryokan is just amazing! I came from Takayama by bus and got off at Nakao Toy Museum. Just go straight and then you can find it it's very easy to locate. It's very quiet and super peaceful so you can have a truly relaxing holiday. The room is typical japanese tatami style which is very big and we got one with a view of the mountains. The best part is that they have private onsen, so you just take one of the signs and put it outside the door of the onsen and you can have your own private time Inside the outdoor onsen overlooking the mountains. It's totally magnificent. The only thing was the shower in the room was super cold somehow but I went to shower at the public indoor onsen area so it was not a problem. Dinner was huge and delicious! Love everything about it! Breakfast is very traditional japanese with rice, miso on a leaf ( regional speciality) and fish....great way to start a day. The lady owner who is actually Filipino (super nice, sweet, fluent in English) drove us to the Ropeway and we had a great time there.||Don't look around anymore just book this, you...

We stayed at Yakenoyu for only one night on our trip in the Japanese Alps. It's a ryokan onsen with traditional looks, although quite modern in its construction (may lack "typical"/"heritage" feel if you've visited older style ryokans before). The family is very nice and helpful, very welcoming. We would highly recommend a stopover there if you're in the area. |||Language: the family speak great English, which is of incredible help in this region where you need to take buses to move around and very little info is in English|Location: admittedly a bit hard to reach if you don't have a car, but the host gave us very precise directions by bus from Takayama JR station. The owner drove us to Shinhotaka Ropeway in the morning. |Room: we opted for a traditional 10 tatami mats Japanese-style room, quite bare but that's the spirit, with a mountain view|Onsen: we didn't try the public onsen, but the ryokan has 2 private onsens which can be freely used. They have a stone pool and a relaxing wooden bath, with hot spring water. |Food: traditional Japanese dinner and breakfast...