Yamagata The Takinami
A · 8.3 / 10anchor a leg
A 19-room, street-facing ryokan in Akayu Onsen, remade in 2017 under a magazine editor's direction, with a spring-fed bath in every room and counter-seated kaiseki built on obscure Yamagata mountain ingredients, cuisine KI-NRT ranks top-10, possibly top-5, of every ryokan he has tried. Book KURA01, the 129 m² first-floor suite with a private garden and volcanic-rock tub, which is the only room he considered worth staying in. It is a lively, social house where you are constantly involved, and he enjoyed that even though he usually prefers solitude.
Scores
Food 5 / 5
The kaiseki was spectacular and, KI-NRT says, the most unique he has ever had: overwhelmingly Yamagata ingredients with subtle European touches, from a course of ten wild mountain vegetables of which even he knew only half to rice-fed koi sashimi in umeboshi dashi and fried chou pastry with butterbur-shoot gelato. Mrs. KI-NRT calls it the best meal of her life, and he ranks the kitchen in his top 10, possibly top 5, of all ryokans he has tried.
Bath 4 / 5
Every room has an in-room onsen fed directly from the spring; first-floor rooms have tubs carved from Zao volcanic rock, which KI-NRT says gives a more authentic soak because the water meets less air, while upstairs rooms have hinoki tubs filled from above. White yunohana flakes of minerals float on the water, and KURA01 adds an open-air hot-stone bath in its garden. The communal bath is small, but he had it to himself both times.
Service 4 / 5
Shortly after check-in guests are invited to a complimentary tasting of Yamagata sake, followed by a demonstration of juwari (100% buckwheat) soba that later turns up at dinner, and on KI-NRT's stay sake sommelier Mr. Hirayama ran it with an engaging talk on the property's history and local culture. He calls it a wonderfully hosted ryokan and one of the rare places where he did not mind being constantly involved.
Room 4 / 5
KURA01, a one-of-a-kind 129m² first-floor suite in a converted storehouse with a private garden and open-air stone bath, is refined and sophisticated and the only room KI-NRT judged worth staying in. The other rooms are 60m² or less, many of them two-storey maisonettes he does not care for, and from photos their furnishings look cheap by comparison. There is no floor heating, which he calls a significant drawback for a Tohoku winter.
Place 3.5 / 5
The inn is a 19-room house facing the street in Akayu Onsen, so it has none of the private, tranquil atmosphere of a small secluded ryokan like Atamiso, and you meet other guests often. The Edo-period main building was remade in 2017 under magazine editor Toru Iwase into farmhouse bones with avant-garde decor. Seasonal outings (a cherry-blossom walk to Eboshiyama Park, summer fireflies, a dawn observation deck) suit guests without a car.
Getting there
- Tokyo — 2h30, 0 transfers. Yamagata Shinkansen 'Tsubasa' direct Tokyo→Akayu (~2h20) — pick a train that stops at Akayu — then a short taxi/inn shuttle.
- Kanazawa — 4h35, 2 transfers. 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.
- Kyoto — 5h25, 1 transfer. Reverse of: 'Tsubasa' Akayu→Tokyo (~2h19), Tōkaidō 'Nozomi'→Kyoto (~2h15) — one clean change, but the 'Tsubasa' has a winter-suspension history.
- Sendai — 1h35, 1 transfer. 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).
Sources
FlyerTalk review #561 · TripAdvisor 5★ (May 2025) · Ikyu 4.76 / 5 · #172 · #558 · #676 · #770 (thread mentions)