Yamagata trip - Dewa Sanzen, Ginzan Onsen

Hi,

I am planning on going to Yamadera, Dewa Sanzen (Haguro-san), Ginzan Onsen and Matsushima on 20th October. My plan was:-

20th October - Tokyo to Yamadera, hotel Yamagata city
21 - Haguro-san staying shukubo or Yamagata city
22 - Ginzan Onsen
23 - Matsushima

So main questions - I can't seem to find any accommodation in Ginzan onsen on 22nd (I am single traveler, but even searching for two adults I find nothing). Any suggestions on how to find accommodation (ideally 30,000 yen max).

Alternatively are taxi's easy to find around 9PM at Ginzan Onsen, to take me to Oishida where I can stay in a hotel) - basically I want to experience and photograph the night atmosphere in the town. Also are there good day onsen available if I do this?

Schedule wise if I arrive at Haguro-san base at 10.30 AMby bus will I have time to hike to the top and return back to Tsuruoka station for last bus to Yamagata at 18:05, or am I better to stay at the Shokubo in case.

Lastly I have two more days available, any other good suggestions of where to spend them in or near the region?

And is the ordering of places I visit logical (it seems transport wise it works).

Many thanks
Chris

Hi!

I think if you want to get up early enough to get to Haguro-san at 10:30, assuming you are alert enough, yes you can hike to the top and hike back down and still make the 18:05 bus. But it sounds like a really long and exhausting day. On my visit to Haguro-san I got up early to catch the express train from Sakata to Tsuruoka and then went to Haguro-san. I climbed up the stairs to the top, but took the bus back down and then took a bus around 14:00 to Yamagata and in Yamagata caught another bus to Zao. BTW the large outdoor onsen in Zao is great. The next day I stopped off in Yonezawa and wandered around, which was also an interesting destination.

Good luck!

Regarding Ginzan onsen, on Jalan I still get availability in one Ryokan but only 1 room is remaining:

https://www.jalan.net/yad314994/?screenId=USW0401&stayDay=22&stayCount...

Regarding public onsen in Ginzan onsen, I remember two, none of them rotenburo. One is a family rental onsen and the other one is a small sento but by a famous Japanese architect: Kengo Kuma

A few of the Ryokans also offer day trippers to bath, but I remember that the hours were very restricted. We at least didnft make it. We were there in the early afternoon if I remember correctly.

Regarding taxis, I donft remember seeing any taxi in Ginzan onsen. Itfs a small place. So you would likely need to call a taxi ahead of time to pick you up.

Other places in the region that are interesting are Kakunodate and Zao.

Kakunodate:
http://bicycletraveljapan.blogspot.com/2017/10/day-18-nyuto-onsen-down...

I personally didnft think Yonagawa was specially interesting:
http://bicycletraveljapan.blogspot.com/2017/10/day-21-yamagata-through...

Enjoy your trip to Japan!

Maybe I just got lucky when I visited in '09, but Yonezawa didn't seem abandoned at all, I've seen much worse. It was during part of Golden Week, and there were lots of amazing carp banners everywhere. There was a particularly impressive series hanging over the river. Uesugi jinja was interesting and had quite a few Japanese tourists. Gackt had played Kenshin in a recent (2007) Taiga drama, so posters showing Gackt in costume were all over town. There was also a huge tourist center that taught how safflowers were used to make dye, pretty interesting to me.

Yamagata has a lot of really interesting and lovely onsen. I think Ginzan is the most popular.

I've not been to many of these but I think there was some sort of Japanese questionnaire for the top onsen in the country via JTB and Japanican lists these: https://www.japanican.com/en/onsen/ranking/index.aspx

I am assuming this was among the Japanese because onsen like Takayu and Dake in Fukushima-ken aren't even listed on this site.

I admit, if you rent a car and drive, at some of the rest stops have prefectural maps showing all sorts of tiny weird destinations that may or may not have actual brochures. I also have found out about places by either looking at Google Maps (I didn't make it, but there was an interesting looking flower park in Nara-ken , I found that way); searching for particular activities I wanted to do (I found the hydrangea forest in Ichinoseki that way); or by sometimes reading trip reports on this website. @Mfedley is really good about writing his up (unlike me) and has hit up a some real lesser known spots like the former mines in Kazuno in Akita-ken. Sometimes having a car can make a difference and it is something you might want to consider since you could get a TEP pass and either rent the car from Sendai and end in Sendai or rent in Yamagata and return in Yamagata.

Lastly I have two more days available, any other good suggestions of where to spend them in or near the region?
Do you plan to visit only Hagurosan? You might want to consider Gas-san as well as Yudono-san .

Lastly I have two more days available, any other good suggestions of where to spend them in or near the region?
Do you plan to visit only Hagurosan? You might want to consider Gas-san as well as Yudono-san .