Takinoya ryokan, nestled among the leafy forests of southern Hokkaido's Noboribetsu resort area, is a glorious location to rest your eYes on the wonders of nature as you soak away your cares in some of the finest hot springs in Japan.
Whether you are after the healing waters of Noboribetsu onsen or the area's natural splendor, Takinoya is an excellent choice in any season. In spring and summer, the prime seasons in this northernmost prefecture, the area buzzes with visitors from all over the world, attracted by the beauty of the natural surroundings. Winter is somewhat quieter, with a tranquil beauty all its own, muffled by blankets of snow. Autumn is also a popular season, when the foliage turns from summer green to blazing fall colors.
Inside, Takinoya is elegant and tasteful - Japanese art, both traditional and modern, graces the interior spaces, which are outfitted in the lovely, spare, zen-inspired geometric simplicity of traditional Japanese design. The ryokan's hallways are floored with tatami, and guests pad around in bare feet or special socks, unlike most ryokan, where slippers are the norm.
The onsen baths boast five different types of water, piped in from the famous Jigokudani onsen source, with different mineral content, acidity and alkalinity to ease both body and mind.
The owners, the Suga family, have five generations of experience serving up their exemplary brand of hospitality, having operated Takinoya since its beginning as a small restaurant in 1918. Let them and the rest of Takinoya's staff show you what omotenashi, traditional Japanese hospitality, is all about.
Rooms
ROOMJapanese Suite DW with Open-air Hot Spring Bath
Takinoya's premium room, this is a 92-sq.-meter, four-room Japanese-style suite floored in tata…
ROOMJapanese-Western Suite DY with Open-air Hot Spring Bath
This is a large, 91 sq. meter Japanese/Western style room, with a mix of Western style furnitur…
ROOMJapanese-Western Suite D with Open-air Hot Spring Bath
This combined Japanese/Western room has twin Western-style beds, and a sitting room overlooking…
ROOMJapanese-Westen Room C
This combined Japanese/Western room, meant for two to four persons. The sense of luxurious comf…
ROOMJapanese Style Room AW
This room is a Japanese type, overlooking the ryokan's Japanese garden with its trout pond, tra…
ROOMJapanese-Western Room AY
This two-person room is a combined Japanese/Western type, overlooking the ryokan's Japanese gar…
ROOMJapanese Suite DW with Open-air Hot Spring Bath
Takinoya's premium room, this is a 92-sq.-meter, four-room Japanese-style suite floored in tatami throughout. The rotemburo is a huge tub made of local slate and set amidst a spacious wooden deck overlooking a forest glade. Large living and sitting rooms complement the deck, and in-room meals are served in the dining room next to high windows overlooking a forested hillside. REQUEST THIS ROOM
ROOMJapanese-Western Suite DY with Open-air Hot Spring Bath
This is a large, 91 sq. meter Japanese/Western style room, with a mix of Western style furniture in the living room and Japanese floor-level seating in the dining area. Sleeping arrangements are available for both Western-style beds or comfortable Japanese futons on sweetly aromatic tatami mats. The spacious rotemburo is a big beautiful slate number overlooking the maple woods, complemented by a big wooden deck – an ideal place to sit and contemplate the northern seasons. REQUEST THIS ROOM
ROOMJapanese-Western Suite D with Open-air Hot Spring Bath
This combined Japanese/Western room has twin Western-style beds, and a sitting room overlooking a forest of Hokkaido maples. It boasts a large tatami room and dining room, and the lovely big stone rotemburo is an inviting presence out on the spacious wooden veranda, a good place to sit and ponder the drama of nature outside. REQUEST THIS ROOM
ROOMJapanese-Westen Room C
This combined Japanese/Western room, meant for two to four persons. The sense of luxurious comfort is enhanced by a cheerful fireplace, big couches and corner windows overlooking the woods and the garden, as well as the large hinoki wooden bathtub inside next to a huge window that looks out onto the woods. Twin beds provide a restful environment for sleep. REQUEST THIS ROOM
ROOMJapanese Style Room AW
This room is a Japanese type, overlooking the ryokan's Japanese garden with its trout pond, traditional stone lantern and beautiful maple and birch trees. It sports a spacious wooden ofuro made of hinoki wood, as well as a double vanity. The room accommodates up to 1 to 5 people. REQUEST THIS ROOM
ROOMJapanese-Western Room AY
This two-person room is a combined Japanese/Western type, overlooking the ryokan's Japanese garden with its trout pond, traditional stone lantern and beautiful maple and birch trees. It sports a spacious wooden ofuro made of hinoki wood, as well as a double vanity. REQUEST THIS ROOM
FACILITIES & SERVICES
Cuisine
Dinner in the restaurant, Genseirin (the name means "wild woods"), is kaiseki ryori Japanese ha…
Kumoi-No-Yu
Takinoya has two onsen hot spring bathing areas, on the top floor and the ground level. The top…
Chien-NO-Yu
The lower level spa, "Chien no Yu," has five different rocky bathing pools, each with a differe…
Bar
There is also a friendly counter bar overlooking the garden, where all kinds of alcoholic bever…
Japanese Garden
A peaceful Japanese garden complete with a traditional stone lantern graces Takinoya's inner co…
Lounge
The lounge is an inviting presence on the cool Hokkaido nights, with a cheery fire and a friend…
Meeting Room
The large, beautiful "Kiri" ("Pawlonia") banquet and meeting hall is a wa-shitsu in the Japanes…
Spa
Services in the Treatment Salon Spa include head, foot and body massages, facials, and salt oil…
Cuisine
Dinner in the restaurant, Genseirin (the name means "wild woods"), is kaiseki ryori Japanese haute cuisine with a strong emphasis on local Hokkaido offerings, chosen to match the season and the view from the huge, ceiling-high windows. The fresh vegetables, mouth-watering beef and pork, and fresh seafood, are all done up in delicious, artful and innovative ways.
Kumoi-No-Yu
Takinoya has two onsen hot spring bathing areas, on the top floor and the ground level. The top floor spa, "Kumoi no Yu," is a rotemburo outdoor bath which, with its cave-like dark stone walls and ceiling, appears to flow out into the woods infinity-style. With the water brimming and clouds of steam rolling off it, you can feel yourself unwinding a little more with every successive heartbeat.
Chien-NO-Yu
The lower level spa, "Chien no Yu," has five different rocky bathing pools, each with a different kind of natural onsen water, such as salt spring, ferric spring (which is replete with iron), and sulphur spring, as well as different levels of acidity and alkalinity, to ease and treat a variety of ailments, from garden-variety aches and pains to neuralgia, diabetes and many other disorders. The rotemburo outdoor pools are down at the end of an adventurous path, a little chilly in winter, but worth it for the feeling of blissful warmth they impart.
Bar
There is also a friendly counter bar overlooking the garden, where all kinds of alcoholic beverages are served on a bar hewn from a huge slab of cedar.
Japanese Garden
A peaceful Japanese garden complete with a traditional stone lantern graces Takinoya's inner courtyard, a fine place to contemplate the changing of the seasons, accompanied by the music of falling water.
Lounge
The lounge is an inviting presence on the cool Hokkaido nights, with a cheery fire and a friendly stand bar. There is also a shop that sells local crafts, culinary specialties and alcoholic beverages.
Meeting Room
The large, beautiful "Kiri" ("Pawlonia") banquet and meeting hall is a wa-shitsu in the Japanese style with tatami mats, and can accommodate large groups of people. The hall preserves some of the original 90-year-old interior, and is a perfect venue for parties and meetings with important persons in traditional luxury.
Spa
Services in the Treatment Salon Spa include head, foot and body massages, facials, and salt oil treatments, as well as aromatherapy and original spa treatments.
Experience
Japan's Northern Paradise, Noboribetsu - Hokkaido New Chitose Airport - Noboribetsu Onsen - New Chitose Airport 5 Days 4 NightsMore
Experience
Japan's Northern Paradise, Noboribetsu - Hokkaido New Chitose Airport - Noboribetsu Onsen - New Chitose Airport 5 Days 4 Nights
Day 1
Arrival at New Chitose Airport
Arrive at New Chitose Airport, Sapporo, from Tokyo. This 1.5-hour flight takes you to a whole different side of Japan. Continue your journey to Noboribetsu Onsen by express train, a 50-minute ride that takes you directly to Noboribetsu station. After that, it’s a 10-minute taxi ride to Takinoya.
You could also take an express bus from the airport to Noboribetsu Onsen bus terminal, which takes 1 hour. From the bus terminal it’s only 3 minutes to Takinoya.
Takinoya has a free transfer service from the bus terminal to the ryokan.
*Please book in advance.
Check in at Takinoya.
This ryokan, nestled amid the leafy forests of southern Hokkaido’s Noboribetsu resort area, is a glorious place to rest your eyes on the wonders of nature as you soak away your cares in some of the finest hot springs in Japan. Takinoya is elegant and tasteful – Japanese art, both traditional and modern, graces the interior spaces, which are designed in the lovely, spare, Zen-inspired geometric simplicity of traditional Japanese design. The ryokan’s hallways are floored with tatami, and guests pad around in bare feet or special socks, unlike most ryokan, where slippers are the norm.
Until dinner time, why not stroll through Noboribetsu’s Jigoku-dani Valley? This valley is the crater of a volcano that erupted 10,000 years ago and is now the main source of Noboribetsu’s hot spring water. Follow the hiking trails and find the natural hot spring Oyunuma River, where you can enjoy a natural hot spring footbath.
*Footbath may not be available in winter due to heavy snow.
Before dinner starts, enjoy the onsen hot spring baths that boast five different typesof water, piped in from the Jigoku-dani Valley, each with a different mineral content,acidity and alkalinity to ease both body and mind.
Day 2
Biratori or Lake Toya
Today is at leisure – you are free to relax at the ryokan or explore the environs.
Option 1 – Experience Ainu culture
Visit with your guide by private car Biratori Nibutani Ainu Culture Museum, devoted to the history and cultural assets of the Ainu, the indigenous people of Hokkaido. The museum is in the town of Biratori, 1 hour drive from Takinoya.
The Ainu have their own unique culture and history. Now mostly assimilated into Japanese society, the Ainu were a society of hunter-gatherers, living mainly by farming, hunting and fishing, and followed a religion based on the natural world. The Ainu culture can be found from Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido to Sakhalin Island, Kamchatka Peninsula and into Siberia. Their culture is unique and fascinating, with distinctive clothing, tools, dances, festivals and other cultural features.
Visiting the excellent Biratori Nibutani Ainu Culture Museum is a great chance to learn about the Ainu and experience their fascinating culture first-hand.
You will be invited as a private guest to a traditional-style house where Ainu people still live today, followed by a visit to an Ainu textile studio. There you will have a chance to learn about Ainu culture directly from Ainu people. This is a rare experience that is unique to this area, and you can only have by coming here.
Ainu are renowned for their beautiful, colorful textiles, which are quite different from traditional Japanese clothing, and are often made of different materials, such as cloth made from elm bark.
*An English-speaking guide and private car should be reserved on Day 1 for this tour.
Option 2 – Lake Toya Nature Tour
Visit Lake Toya and Showa Shinzan with your guide by private car. This beautiful lake is about 1 hour and 30 minutes away.
Join your nature guide to watch wild Ezo deer and giant trees on the volcanic Nakajima Island, located in the middle of Lake Toya. This island, accessible only by boat, is uninhabited by humans, but is home to small herds of deer and other animals in their natural state, as well as old-growth forests of pine, spruce and chestnut trees. Nakajima is famous for its giant Ezo Spruce trees, some of them centuries old.
Showa Shinzan is a rather rare thing – a new mountain, a lava dome that appeared next to Mt. Usu after a series of earthquakes and rose from the earth in just two years in 1944-45. The mountain is now 400 meters tall and still growing. A cable car takes you on a six-minute ride from the foot of Showa Shinzan to the summit of Mount Usu, where you can enjoy spectacular panoramic views over Lake Toya.
The Mt. Usu Ropeway, next to Showa Shinzen, is also a fun trip – you take a gondola 725 meters up the active volcano Mt. Usu. After enjoying spectacular panoramic views over Lake Toya from observation deck, you may walk the Usu Outer Rim Hiking Trail. This 1.6km hike from Sanroku Gondola Station to the Outer Rim Observation Deck takes about 1 hour. In this course you can walk on the boardwalk through a sea of lush natural mountain vegetation.
*An English-speaking guide and private car should be arranged on from Day 1 for this tour.
Return to Takinoya.
Day 3
Noboribetsu
Today you may relax at Takinoya or visit the neighborhood around the ryokan.
Noboribetsu Bear Park, located on the top of Mt. Kuma, is a fascinating destination. A 7 minute ride from the town on a cable car takes you to this park, a fenced-in bear sanctuary where about 140 bears wander freely. You can see the bears up close, feed them (only with special bear cookies) and watch the daily performances. The purpose of this park is not just entertainment – the operators want to change the public perception of bears, which are often thought of as a dangerous nuisance.
Noboribetsu Marine Park Nixe is a fun facility that incudes both a theme park and an aquarium. It is only 15 minutes away from Takinoya by car, and is a great place to take your family. The park has a replica Danish castle, with an aquarium inside. The aquarium is one of the biggest in Japan, and features fascinating exhibits, including an underwater tunnel where you can see sharks, as well as king crabs, giant octopi, and many other sea creatures. It also has dolphin and sea lion shows.
Back at Takinoya, you could try a relaxing session in the spa. Services in the Treatment Salon Spa include head, foot and body massages, facials and salt oil treatments, as well as aromatherapy and original spa treatments.
If you visit in sakura (cherry blossom) season in May, you can have a chance to go through the famous Sakura Tunnel, which extends 8km from JR Noboribetsu station to the hot spring town.
During summer, you can enjoy the Demon’s Fireworks shows. These fun shows are held from June 1st to the middle of August. You may walk to the Jigoku-dani (Hell Valley) observatory after dinner. Then you’ll be thrilled as red and blue demons launch handheld fireworks and dance to Japanese drums to bring happiness to the people and drive evil spirits out.
*Shows are held every Thursday and Friday during the season, starting at 8:30 pm.
In winter, you could enjoy skiing at Sanlaiva Ski Area, which is only 15 minutes by car from Takinoya. This ski resort is suitable for beginners to advanced skiers as well as snowboarders.
Day 4
Departure
Check out from Takinoya and transfer to New Chitose Airport.
If you transfer back to the airport by private car, you may stop by the Northern Horse Park, a natural park with lots of activities that allow visitors to interact with horses, including horseback riding, horse-drawn carriages and sleighs in the winter, and ponies for the kids. It’s a popular attraction, and close to the airport.
Complimentary transfer from/to Noboribetsu Onsen Bus Termianl (1min) / Reservation required 8 min by taxi From JR Noboribetsu Station / 1 min by complimentary shsuttle or 3 min on foot from Noboribetsu Onsen bus stop
Key Gate Way Int'l Airport and Train (Shinkansen) Station
Japanese-Western Suite DY with Open-air Hot Spring Bath
91 sqm
WD
92,850
61,900
60,800
59,700
HD
97,800
65,200
64,100
63,000
Japanese-Western Suite D with Open-air Hot Spring Bath
83 sqm
WD
79,650
53,100
52,000
50,900
HD
84,600
56,400
55,300
54,200
Japanese-Westen Room C
81 sqm
WD
68,100
45,400
44,300
43,200
HD
73,050
48,700
47,600
46,500
Japanese Style Room AW
65 sqm
WD
58,050
38,800
37,700
36,600
HD
63,000
42,100
41,000
39,900
Japanese-Western Room AY
59 sqm
WD
58,050
38,800
N/A
N/A
HD
63,000
42,100
N/A
N/A
Note:
Non-smoking room: YES
Barrier free: YES
Ryokan rate is for one person, includes one night accommodation, Japanese full course dinner, breakfast, service charge and taxes.
H: Saturday, Previous night of public holiday and summer Obon season (TBA)
Seasonality: These rates are not applicable for the period from 31st December to 3rd January
- The mentioned rates and service are available only for LRC Members who book through LRC's website.
- The rates are subject to change without any prior notice.
- Please note that a particular room cannot be guaranteed in advance unless otherwise stated by The Ryokan Collection
