吉祥やまなか Kissho Yamanaka

I have stayed in more than 10 onsen hotels in Japan and I would say that this one is just so so. Service wise I don’t feel any warmth or welcoming staff. It’s just like a normal 3 star hotel check in experience. We arrived 1 minute late and were told that no afternoon tea could be offered - would be good if they remind us in advance of the offer so that we will make our way there. Then all private onsen was fully booked at 4pm for the next 18 hours. In fact they only got three which is quite few as compared to other onsen we have stayed. As for the public bath it was REALLY REALLy small. We have three persons at the outdoor onsen which was already so packed. The kiseki was not particularly impressive and so so given the price we paid (USD200 per person). Breakfast was even worse. All in all only a mediocre hotel. With the price we are paying one can find better choice at Takayama or other closer area for sure.

Some context here. I was staying for 3 days here and had really high expectations about this ryokan. Good parts: Food quality is good. Not spectacular, but on a fair level. I'd say the biggest downside is the western breakfast menu. I'd say should be avoided. Japanese breakfast offers free self refills of juice, salad bar, morning sake while western one has you sitting in front of teppan without those options. Rooms are clean and well kept. No complaints there. Hot spring area is ok. But compared to their sister hotel is poor imho. The external male bath is pretty much an internal one simply without window. Their original.location has beautiful external baths though! The biggest downside and disappointment was the service. Cold. Distant. Without any explanations or help when asked. Also very visible during service. (And we do speak Japanese so it's not language barrier issue). Because of that I would not recommend this ryokan.

Very nice and quiet, the onsen was so good with very peaceful scenes. The food and services were up to standard as expected.

We had a wonderful stay here in August. We were warmly greeted by an English-speaking staff member and shown to our traditional Japanese room, which was absolutely lovely with a river view and peaceful minimalist furniture. I was concerned when I booked because it was a smoking room but there was no smell at all. We reserved the private stone bath and it was an amazing experience. Food and snacks were good and abundant. Futons were made up for us while we were at dinner and we had a great sleep. We only spent one night and it would have been better to have had two to enjoy the room and all the hotel has to offer. The Western breakfast was especially fun with course after course cooked right in front of you with guests seated around a stovetop.||The area is within easy reach of Kanazawa and I would highly recommend visiting the temple grounds of Natadera on your way from Kaga to the hotel. We ended up paying around 60 euros for a taxi to take us there and wait for us for an hour, but it was worth it for what was the highlight of a 2 week trip to Japan. There's a nice British guy at the tourist office at the Kaga station that can help you arrange this with a taxi driver. ||It's not cheap, but when you factor in the cost of a luxurious dinner, breakfast, and private bath (not to mention tea, snacks, yukata rental, all free), it was a good value stay and we really enjoyed ourselves.

I called the hotel to inform them that we would arrive later than expected, and I was already anticipating missing dinner time. However, the hotel was very thoughtful—they guided us directly to dinner upon our arrival. The staff stayed on to serve us beyond the regular dinner hours. And we checked in after dinner. Although the hotel is old, it is very well-maintained, and the hot spring was very relaxing. There were many thoughtful touches, such as choosing your own yukata, picking your own coffee cup, and enjoying free pudding during specific hours, which made the experience even more enjoyable. We are very thankful for everything. We got a good rest and had a wonderful, comfortable time.

Visited in December during early winter, the weather is starting to get cold but there's no snow yet. We were picked up by the hotel bus from the station, which is super convenient. The check in process was quite simple as well. Love the drink served to us which is umekobucha. The lobby has a lot of nice and fancy decorations and is great for photos. There's also a foot bath with a river view near the lounge area. We got to enjoy freshly made pancakes during tea time, which is quite enjoyable. After that, there were free flow drinks and alcohol at the lounge for the guests. We selected a full course crab dinner which is super luxurious and we spent almost three hours to enjoy all the dishes served. All the dishes were nicely presented, the staff is very kind to teach us the easy way to peel our crabs and how to enjoy them. Each of the cooking method is very good, but I do enjoy the whole crab the best. Breakfast was super scrumptious as well with a range of side dishes to be eaten with fluffy white rice. The grilled nodoguro and tamagoyaki is amazing, and I do like the free flow salad bar as well. In the day time before check out, we enjoyed more drinks and snacks at the lounge with beautiful teacups. This is definitely a fancy and luxurious night stay at a japanese style ryokan to relax and unwind, forgot about busy life and scheduled for a while and be close to nature, enjoy good food and hot spring with nice views.

Kissho Yamanaka is a lovely Onsen tucked away in the lush green mountains above a bubbling stream. In the evening you can hear frogs croaking which makes you feel truly calm and it rained almost the whole time we were there which made the hotel feel even more cozy and relaxing. It’s incredibly peaceful and has three private open air baths you can book for 50 minutes once per day of your stay. There are also public baths but we have many tattoos which is not allowed in the public bath area (this is very common in Japan), but you are free to use the private baths even with tattoos which is in part why we selected this hotel. We tried the stone and cedar baths which were both a perfect hot temperature and had a fridge with ice pops to enjoy after a piping hot bath. The hotel staff is incredibly attentive and thoughtful, taking the time to thoroughly explain everything at check in and sharing some maps of the nearby town. The hotel offers many amenities like pajamas and in room toiletries as well as a futon turndown during dinner. There’s also a pancake service, pudding service, happy hour, evening performances, and local snacks offered. Between that and an incredibly hearty and delicious half board (breakfast and dinner) you can’t possibly go hungry during your stay. They also give you coupons to use for free snacks if you venture into town (which you should to explore a beautiful shopping street and local Kaga style housewares!) We ate at the teppanyaki restaurant and it was delicious but the breakfast was the same both days, though they did make an effort to change up dinner a little for us on our second night. There is also an adorable select-your-own yukata “shop” in the hotel where you can select a yukata to wear around the hotel and town with many styles and colors to choose from. We upgraded day of arrival from a room with a small tub to a room with an open air bath and it was completely worth the cost of the upgrade, we also got free in room drinks with the upgrade which the staff generously and proactively switched out the beer for highballs after I mentioned that neither of us drink beer. My only real complaints if I must be fussy is the water in our rooms open air bath wasn’t as hot as I would’ve liked, but I like my bath water hotter than most people. The other is that the WiFi in our room was very slow and unreliable, but is a nice chance to disconnect so I don’t much mind. They have a free shuttle to take you from the Kaga Onsen JR station (15 minutes or so from the hotel) which is about 3 hours from Tokyo and 2 hours from Osaka so very convenient to get to. I genuinely can’t wait to come back for another stay at this wonderful and accommodating onsen!

This definitely is the star of our trips. We booked hana room and the entire experience was relaxing and truly enjoyable. The service was exceptional—staff were attentive, friendly, and always ready to assist. The onsen facilities were well-maintained, providing a peaceful and rejuvenating atmosphere. The food was another highlight of our stay. The meal was thoughtfully prepared with high-quality ingredients, offering both delicious flavors and beautiful presentation. A huge thank you to the team for making our stay so enjoyable! Everything exceeded our expectations, if I could give more than 5 stars, I definitely would! Highly recommended and can’t wait to return!