About us

Yamanoyu is a small inn of eight rooms and one spring, kept by the same family for three generations.

The house among the trees — The house, seen from the lower road

The history

In 1926 Tokutaro Yamada, a charcoal burner of the valley, followed a thread of steam up the slope behind his hut and found the spring. He dug a first tub, put a roof over it and offered a bed to the woodcutters and the pilgrims who walked the old road to the temple. Fifteen years later the hut had become a house of six rooms.

His son Shigeru rebuilt it after the war with timber from the same forest and added the long corridor and the hearth room, which is still the dining room. His granddaughter Haruko and her husband Kenji took it over in 2004. They kept the wooden house, the hearth and the free-flowing bath, and added the rooms with their own cypress baths, a little at a time, so that it stayed a house and not a hotel.

Haruko Yamada, the owner — Haruko Yamada, in the corridor of the house

The owners

Haruko and Kenji Yamada live in the house with their two children, and one of them is always at the desk. Haruko decides the menu with the cook each month, Kenji looks after the baths, the wood and the garden, and neither of them is far when a guest has a question.

Write to them before your stay if you would like a quiet room, a cake for a birthday, a vegetarian dinner or a walk with a guide: it is how most of the good surprises of a stay begin.

Where we are

Yamanoyu
12 Yamanoyu-cho
Nagano, Japan

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

View the larger map

Getting here

The road up to the inn — The last kilometres, on the road from the valley

By train. From Tokyo, the Hokuriku Shinkansen to Nagano takes about an hour and twenty minutes. From Nagano station, our shuttle leaves at 15:10 and 16:40 and takes 45 minutes: tell us when you book which one you take. The local train to Yudanaka and a taxi (15 minutes) also work.
By car. Take the Joshin-etsu expressway to Suzaka-Nagano-Higashi, then follow the signs to Yamanoyu for about 25 minutes. Parking is free, in front of the house. In winter, chains or snow tyres are needed on the last stretch.
On foot. Walkers on the old road arrive by the back gate, which is open all day.

Check-in is from 15:00, check-out at 10:30. If you will arrive later than 19:00, call us: dinner is kept warm.

Choose a room