Araya Totoan
unscored · Ikyu 4.6 / 5no first-hand write-up in the thread
An 18-generation Yamashiro Onsen inn where Rosanjin lived for a year, with source-fed cypress rotenburo in most rooms and his art on the walls. Ikyu guests mark it 4.58 across 70 reviews and repeatedly praise the bathing and the crab-course dinner, calling the house Michelin-1-Key quality, though more than one flags service and amenities as below what the price should buy. Nobody in the thread has stayed since the renovation that began in 2018, which leaves it a historically compelling unknown.
Scores
Food
Dinner can be a whole tagged snow crab per person from Hashidate port, served as kobako crab, then chilled sashimi, charcoal-grilled, boiled and finally zosui. There is an owner-chosen wine list to go with the kaiseki, and Rosanjin, the artist-gourmet, lived and worked in the house for a year. Ikyu guests put the food at 4.57 and repeatedly praise the dinner kaiseki.
Bath
The spring won a gold medal at an international mineral springs exposition in Germany in the early Taisho era, and eleven of the seventeen rooms have an open-air cypress bath fed straight from it. The three communal baths are large and quiet, one arranged as two tubs, hot at 42 to 43 degrees and tepid near 37. Ikyu guests put the bath at 4.74, their highest mark.
Service
Eighteen generations of one family have run the house, holding the Maeda clan's hot-spring stewardship, and the hospitality is courteous and formal. Ikyu guests put the service at 4.56 and divide on it: many praise the staff, but a recurring view is that the service could be more polished for an inn at this price.
Room
The rooms are historic and full of art, with Rosanjin's screens and ceramics and works by Suda Seika on display, and the whole inn was renovated from 2018. Ikyu guests give the rooms and amenities 4.47, their lowest mark for the inn, so the rooms are where the crowd's enthusiasm is most measured.
Place
The inn is in Yamashiro Onsen on the Ishikawa coast, but guests describe the inside more than the town: Rosanjin spent a year living and working here, and the corridors are tatami from the front door onward, so you walk barefoot through the inn and past his gallery.
Getting there
- Kanazawa — 0h35, 0 transfers. Kanazawa→Kaga-Onsen (~15–30 min), then Beniya Mukayu's free on-demand shuttle (~15 min; runs 14:20–18:00, call your arrival time ahead; returns every 30 min 8:45–11:15) — or a ~¥3k taxi.
- Tokyo — 3h, 0 transfers. Hokuriku Shinkansen direct Tokyo→Kaga-Onsen — 2h48 on the best pairing (Maps 2026-08-02, single line, no self-change), then the Beniya shuttle ~15 min (call ahead; inbound window 14:20–18:00). ⚠ Kagayaki skips Kaga-Onsen since the 2024 Tsuruga extension, so it is the through-Hakutaka you want; earlier departures that miss it run 3h06–3h47 with a change at Kanazawa or Tsuruga.
- Kyoto — 2h, 1 transfer. Reverse of: Beniya Mukayu shuttle→Kaga-Onsen (~15 min), 'Tsurugi'→Tsuruga (~37 min), cross-platform change (~10 min), 'Thunderbird' Ltd Exp→Kyoto (~55 min) — 2026-07 audit; the old ~1h30 used a stale pre-extension Thunderbird time.
- Fukuoka — 3h30, 2 transfers. Reverse of: Yamashiro Onsen sits right by Komatsu Airport: ~15-min taxi to KMQ, the KMQ→Fukuoka hop (~1h40, ~4 daily ANA/ORC), then the subway 2 stops into Hakata (~5 min). ~3.5h door-to-door — the shortest Hokuriku→Kyushu run.
- Nagasaki — 5h30, 4 transfers. Reverse of: ~15-min taxi to Komatsu + KMQ→Fukuoka (~1h40) into Hakata, then Nishi-Kyushu relay→Nagasaki via Takeo-Onsen (~2h). ~5.5h door-to-door.
- Kagoshima — 5h, 3 transfers. Reverse of: ~15-min taxi to Komatsu + KMQ→Fukuoka (~1h40) into Hakata, then Kyushu Shinkansen 'Mizuho'→Kagoshima-Chūō (~1h17). ~5h door-to-door.