{
 "slug": "osteria-sincerita",
 "name": "Osteria Sincerità",
 "url": "https://ryokancatalog.com/inn/osteria-sincerita",
 "location": "Akayu Onsen (Nanyō)",
 "prefecture": "Yamagata",
 "region": "Tohoku",
 "geo": {
  "lat": 38.0486,
  "lng": 140.1704
 },
 "tier": "B",
 "score": 7.8,
 "score_scale": "1-10",
 "unscored": false,
 "confidence": "low",
 "evidence": {
  "units": 2,
  "op_stays": 1,
  "member_stays": 0
 },
 "kinrt_rank_claim": null,
 "rooms": null,
 "property_type": null,
 "style": null,
 "features": {
  "in_room_onsen": null,
  "meals_in_room": null
 },
 "summary": "Osteria Sincerità is a three-room auberge ryokan on a town-centre lot in Akayu Onsen, built around chef Makoto Harada's Italian-Japanese counter cuisine and an undiluted source-fed cypress bath in every villa, 50 meters from its sister inn Yamagata The Takinami. There is no view and no garden, and KI-NRT considers the two-storey rooms more rustic-artistic than pure luxury, but the food is what brings people here, cooked from Yamagata's own ingredients by a chef who held a Michelin star in Niigata. It makes most sense as one night of a two-inn Akayu split.",
 "aspect_scale": "1-5",
 "aspects": {
  "cuisine": {
   "label": "Food",
   "score": 4.5,
   "text": "Dinner is chef Makoto Harada's Italian-Japanese cooking at an open-kitchen counter (there is one private room, which KI-NRT got), built on Yamagata's wild vegetables, fungi, meat and river fish. Harada won a Michelin star at Il Riposo in Niigata before Takinami's owner gave him free rein here. KI-NRT found each dish a delight, the seared horse meat in a buckwheat galette possibly the best baniku he has tried. Ikyu guests put the food at 4.95."
  },
  "onsen": {
   "label": "Bath",
   "score": 4,
   "text": "Each villa has a hinoki open-air bath fed with a continuous flow of 100% pure source onsen, straight from the spring, and Alba and Monte add a private steam sauna (Grano does not). The one shared bath is a private rental carved from a single giant slab of Mt. Zao volcanic stone, bookable in 50-minute slots, and with three rooms KI-NRT expects no trouble getting a slot. Ikyu guests give the baths a perfect 5.0 and single out the water."
  },
  "service": {
   "label": "Service",
   "score": 4,
   "text": "KI-NRT found the service matched sister inn Yamagata The Takinami and then some, starting with a spread of welcome snacks. Foreign guests are rare and one staff member, Ms. Mamuta from Nepal, handles English. Ikyu guests put service at 4.84, their lowest mark here, and the reservation that recurs is the dinner format, which starts for all parties at once as a staged show that not every guest enjoys."
  },
  "room": {
   "label": "Room",
   "score": 4,
   "text": "The three villas, Grano, Monte and Alba, are two-storey with two bedrooms and an open-air onsen bath, and each has a screen painting from the Takinami collection and a Finn Juhl Baker sofa, different in each room. Grano (135 square metres to the others' 150) is the only one with a dry rock garden. KI-NRT took Grano for the garden and calls the rooms more rustic-artistic than pure luxury, but found it comfortable. Ikyu guests give the rooms 5.0."
  },
  "setting": {
   "label": "Place",
   "score": 3,
   "text": "Osteria Sincerità sits on a small lot in the middle of Akayu town, with the restaurant and three villas around a small courtyard, outdoor seating with a firepit and a yurt-like tent that serves as the lounge. There is no garden, no view and no large communal area, and KI-NRT's advice is to walk 50 meters to Yamagata The Takinami and use its facilities. Ikyu guests put the facilities at 4.95 all the same."
  }
 },
 "transit": {
  "cities": [
   {
    "city": "Tokyo",
    "hours": 2.5,
    "time": "2h30",
    "transfers": 0,
    "estimated": false,
    "text": "Yamagata Shinkansen 'Tsubasa' direct Tokyo→Akayu (~2h20) — pick a train that stops at Akayu — then a short taxi/inn shuttle."
   },
   {
    "city": "Kanazawa",
    "hours": 4.6,
    "time": "4h35",
    "transfers": 2,
    "estimated": false,
    "text": "Hokuriku Shinkansen Kanazawa→Ōmiya (~2h01), Tōhoku 'Yamabiko' Ōmiya→Fukushima (~1h07), change to the 'Tsubasa' over the Itaya pass→Akayu (~52 min) + short taxi. Two changes (Ōmiya, Fukushima). ⚠ heavy January delay exposure on the final Tsubasa leg."
   },
   {
    "city": "Kyoto",
    "hours": 5.4,
    "time": "5h25",
    "transfers": 1,
    "estimated": false,
    "text": "Reverse of: 'Tsubasa' Akayu→Tokyo (~2h19), Tōkaidō 'Nozomi'→Kyoto (~2h15) — one clean change, but the 'Tsubasa' has a winter-suspension history."
   },
   {
    "city": "Sendai",
    "hours": 1.6,
    "time": "1h35",
    "transfers": 1,
    "estimated": false,
    "text": "Reverse of: Yamagata Shinkansen 'Tsubasa' Akayu→Fukushima (~35 min — a SE backtrack), transfer to a northbound Tōhoku Shinkansen→Sendai (~25 min), plus a 5-min taxi/inn shuttle at the Akayu end (reserve)."
   }
  ],
  "note": ""
 },
 "photos": [
  {
   "url": "/img/sincerita-0-5adefdd7.jpg",
   "tag": "bath",
   "width": 400,
   "height": 299
  },
  {
   "url": "/img/sincerita-1-5d8ea5ba.jpg",
   "tag": "setting",
   "width": 400,
   "height": 299
  },
  {
   "url": "/img/sincerita-2-96e2e265.jpg",
   "tag": "room",
   "width": 400,
   "height": 300
  },
  {
   "url": "/img/sincerita-3-2c19227e.jpg",
   "tag": "interior",
   "width": 400,
   "height": 300
  },
  {
   "url": "/img/sincerita-4-5cd6a956.jpg",
   "tag": "food",
   "width": 400,
   "height": 300
  }
 ],
 "links": {
  "website": "https://osteria-sincerita.com/",
  "map": "https://www.google.com/maps?cid=930855670087255040",
  "jp_site": {
   "source": "Ikyu",
   "score": 4.94,
   "reviews": 19,
   "url": "https://www.ikyu.com/00003078/review/",
   "as_of": "2026-07-11"
  },
  "flyertalk_reviews": [
   {
    "post": 806,
    "author": "KI-NRT",
    "url": "https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/37850035-post806.html"
   }
  ],
  "flyertalk_discussion": [],
  "tripadvisor": []
 },
 "as_of": "2026-09-07"
}