Shosuke-no-Yado Takinoyu

Authentic and very good Japanese food.Room is clean and good service.
Nice Onsen pool with free ice cream and beer, served outside onsen room.

What could be improved: Room a little big small but well maintained.
A little disappointed as room assigned was same floor as smoking room… some how feeling not comfortable for non smoking customers like us.

The man out front helping with parking and the man assisting in the restaurant were exceptional and extremely helpful and friendly.
In general, they were all extremely good, given the language barrier.
The private bath, with the view of the falls, is wonderful.
For anyone over 5' 5" or 175 cm, be aware that the building is 135 yrs old, so has low beams in some areas.

What could be improved: Lack of guidance from the station to the hotel.
Once we were there, we were able to find out how to navigate around town.

This recently and very tastefully renovated onsen was delightful. With an excellent location in a valley on the fringe of Aizuwakamatsu, but only a short bus or taxi ride away from the centre of town (a regular bus service stops right outside the ryokan) we enjoyed the view of a rapidly flowing stream with beautiful waterfalls and bamboo groves from our room, the lounge, banquet hall and baths. Our room was very spacious, comfortable and nicely furnished, with a small wooden bath, and in excellent condition.

Our meals, served in the cavernous and rather characterless "banquet hall" (surprising as the rest of the ryokan. was so tastefully decorated), were excellent, generously sized and delicious. Both the indoor and outdoor baths were superb - large, well appointed, spotlessly clean, atmospheric and well maintained - and all of the staff were very kind and pleasant. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in this lovely onsen and thought it offered excellent value for money.

What could be improved: The banquet hall seemed to be understaffed as service was quite slow.

Very traditional, Amazing Onsen, great location. The staff were very friendly despite the language barrier especially in the restaurant. The breakfast and dinner were delicious.

What could be improved: Our room was very much at the end of the hotel. It felt that because we used Booking.com this was the reason. This may just be our perception though.

This review is a bit complicated because overall, we had a really great experience. The room (see more below) was spacious and the beds were comfortable. They even had extra pillows, and not the typical bean pillows in most ryokan. Dinner and breakfast were delicious and we were seated in the dining hall overlooking the waterfall along the river. The sake-marinated beef was some of the best I've ever had and the homemade mochi at breakfast was a special treat. The public onsen were really nice and I liked that they rotated so we could try the variety of baths.

What could be improved: I specifically booked the room I did because the first sentence of the room claimed "the highlight of this room is its hot tub". The room description also mentioned bathtub and hot tub as two separate things. However, when we arrived, the room had no hot tub, only a bathtub. Perhaps the bathtub used hotspring water (it wasn't clear) but it had no view and was in no way special. I asked at the front desk and they confirmed the room did NOT come with a hot tub despite what the English explanation claimed. The staff never mentioned that we could have had the option of reserving one of the private onsen. We didn't find out about those until we saw them while heading to the main baths. At that time, they were already booked up. While I thought our stay in the end was a lovely one, it was very disappointing in that we'd been led to believe we'd booked a special room. The descriptions of the rooms need to be clarified.