TAOYA Wakura
TAOYA和倉
Area photo — not the ryokan itself · Wakura Onsen on Nanao Bay, Ishikawa · Jpatokal (Wikivoyage) / CC BY-SA 4.0
Wakura's former Kinpaso, back after the 2024 quake as an all-inclusive onsen inn: free drinks and cakes in a bay-view lounge and an 'infinity' bath on Nanao Bay. But the buffet draws steady complaints, and late arrivals get pushed to a 20:00 dinner
TAOYA Wakura is the former Yukai Resort Premium Kinpaso, a large inn on the Nanao Bay shore that had run for more than ten years when the 1 January 2024 Noto Peninsula earthquake struck during check-in. Guests were evacuated safely, but one of its three buildings, home to its open-air bath and pool, had to be demolished. The Oedo Onsen Monogatari group repaired the rest and reopened it on 12 April 2025 under its TAOYA brand, when only five of Wakura's 21 inns were open. It is still a Japanese-style inn: 66 of its 101 rooms are tatami rooms and 30 are Japanese-Western, many with beds set on the tatami, and guests pick yukata from a rack in the lobby. The draw is the all-inclusive deal: free beer, sake, wine and cakes in a bay-view lounge from 14:00, drinks with dinner, late-night udon, a sauna, a bedrock bath, karaoke and billiards. The salty Wakura water fills an 'infinity' outdoor bath facing the bay, though it is recirculated. Treat the headline scores with care, because both big Japanese booking sites mix Kinpaso-era reviews into this listing. Counting only reviews posted since reopening, guests rate it 4.36 across 309 reviews on one site (baths 4.49) and 4.35 across 446 on another. Five blogs from 2025–2026 add detail. Guests praise the sea views from every room, the lounge and the baths. The complaints are just as steady: buffet seafood that tastes neither fresh nor local, late arrivals pushed to a 20:00 dinner and 9:00 breakfast, crowded changing rooms, too few lifts, dated rooms behind the new lobby and some cleaning lapses. Two-meal stays run about ¥17,000–30,000 per person.
Room Selection Guide
What the guests who stayed here actually recommendRecommended
Superior Japanese-Western twins (和洋室) with their own bath
These are roomier than the standard rooms and come with a bathtub. A family of four in one in June 2026 called the stay their best ever for the money, with a clean, comfortable room and the sound of waves at night. A September 2026 guest liked the sea view from the room. Not every one is fresh: in this type, a May 2025 guest found dented tatami, a dated washbasin and stiff doors, and an April 2026 guest found the shower clogged and the tub rough. All rooms face the sea.
Upper-floor rooms with a private open-air bath, such as the 10th-floor Superior rooms
Several guests booked these in 2025–2026 and loved the bay view from the tub. A December 2025 family had a 90㎡ room with a raised tatami area. A March 2026 couple in a 10th-floor Superior triple found it spacious and clean. The inn notes that these room baths are not onsen water. One April 2026 guest said the tub took 50 minutes to fill.
Request To Avoid
Standard twins with beds on tatami (スタンダード和ベッドツイン), especially 'no bath' or shower-only versions
This is the most-booked type: 37㎡ of tatami with two beds, a sofa by the window and a shower booth or no bath at all. A blogger who stayed in 2026 found it 'really ordinary' under the renovation. Guests in these rooms heard footsteps from the floor above (September and December 2025), and one in March 2026 found the duvet covered in pills. Rooms have no table: a group of three in August 2026 (room type not stated) found theirs cramped, and an October 2025 travelogue also noted the missing table. Hair on the bedding was reported in March and September 2026.
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Dining Deep Dive
Breakfast Consensus
3.6/5A buffet in the 2nd-floor restaurant, calme (7:00–10:00, 60-minute limit) built around a make-your-own seafood bowl, an omelette with nodoguro sauce, Noto-milk French toast and warm croissants brought to the table, with free cider. Most guests are happy, but a 2026 blogger found it a step below dinner, and 2025 reviewers found the French toast cold or smelling of steak fat
Arrive soon after 15:00 (the lounge opens at 14:00). Meal times are set at check-in, and on busy days late arrivals were offered only a 17:00 or 20:00 dinner and a 9:00 breakfast (March and July 2026). The late-night udon ran out before 23:00 in March and September 2026, so go early. Book the station shuttle by 18:00 the day before.
Dinner Insights
3.6/5A buffet of about 80 dishes at the 2nd-floor restaurant calme, in 90-minute sittings, with free beer, wine, sake and shochu. Dishes include onsen-steamed seiro baskets cooked at the table, Wajima fugu and seared nodoguro nigiri, tempura, live-kitchen sirloin (the inn says this is processed beef injected with fat), apple pie handed out warm, and Häagen-Dazs. Optional extras include snow crab from ¥3,580 and Noto beef steak at ¥3,280. Since reopening, dinner averages 4.3 on both major sites. A 2026 blogger liked the fugu sushi and green curry but found nothing memorable. Critics found the sashimi watery, fishy or not fresh (February and June 2026) and too little Noto food (July 2025). Others said food ran out near closing (September 2026) and the spread looked smaller on a repeat visit (July 2026). One crab-plan guest waited 30 minutes for a forgotten order (September 2025).
Onsen & Wellness Realities
Wakura's sodium-calcium chloride spring (hypertonic, weakly alkaline, high temperature). The inn lists its baths as having water added, heated and recirculated with filtering, not free-flowing. One August 2026 guest noticed a chemical smell, and a January 2026 guest found limescale on the buckets.
Separate men's and women's baths that don't swap, each with one large indoor bath, one 'infinity' outdoor tub facing the bay, a sea-view sauna and a bedrock bath. The men's bath is on the ground floor, closer to the water. Open 15:00–24:00 and 2:00–10:00, with Refa showers and dryers. Guests love the view, but some found the outdoor tub small and walled on three sides (March 2026). A blogger found the changing room crowded after dinner, a March 2026 guest saw people reserving the women's showers with towels, and the single jar-shaped cold plunge had a queue (August 2026). Seawall repairs in front of the bath had finished by August 2026. There are no private family baths, and the in-room open-air baths are not onsen water. Children aged 7 or older, or over 120 cm, must use the bath for their own gender.
Tattoos are not allowed in the large baths unless fully covered with the inn's own cover stickers, which cost extra (official site). Rooms with a private open-air bath are the alternative.
Local Warnings & Nuances
- 01
Check-in 15:00 (to 19:00), check-out 11:00. Dinner runs 17:00–21:30 in 90-minute sittings. On busy days late arrivals got only a 17:00 or 20:00 dinner and a 9:00 breakfast, and in March 2026 one guest offered only those slots ended up eating from a convenience store. Phone calls go to the group's central line, which several guests found hard to reach.
- 02
Quake recovery is still under way around the inn. In 2026 a blogger saw Kagaya being demolished next door and seawall work along the shore, and some 2026 guests heard demolition noise. Reviews from before April 2025 describe Kinpaso before its partial demolition, but both major booking sites still mix them into this listing's totals.
- 03
Getting there: the station shuttle costs ¥290 each way, must be booked by 18:00 the day before and runs at fixed times (from the station at 15:45; from the inn at 9:40 and 10:50). Taxis can run out at the station (September 2026), and walking takes 40 minutes or more. By car it's about 10 minutes from Wakura IC, with about 90 free parking spaces.
- 04
This is a converted older building with only a few small, slow lifts, which were hard to get on at meal times in August 2026. Guests also mention worn fittings, thin floors and tour groups on some dates, though others found it calm.
- 05
Families are well catered for, with children's yukata, baby food, children's chairs and baby beds in the changing rooms. Futon for children under 2 cost ¥2,200. Table tennis, billiards and karaoke are free, but karaoke costs extra after 19:00.
Sources
The real blog posts and stay reports this article draws on
- TAOYA和倉 宿泊記 2026 チェックイン・お部屋・大浴場 (sometimes)
- TAOYA和倉 宿泊記 2026 ラウンジ・夕食・朝食 (sometimes)
- TAOYA和倉でオールインクルーシブ初体験 (4travel.jp)
- オールインクルーシブTAOYA (4travel.jp)
- オールインクルーシブ【TAOYA和倉】インフィニティ温泉と多彩なビュッフェ (ハウリンの雑念だらけで生きている)
- 『TAOYA和倉』今行ける和倉温泉 (瑠璃茉莉)
- TAOYA和倉のクチコミ・評判一覧 (じゃらんnet)
- TAOYA和倉 宿泊施設情報 (じゃらんnet)
- TAOYA和倉 クチコミ・レビュー (楽天トラベル)
- 営業再開した「TAOYA和倉」がつなぐ能登・和倉温泉の未来 (楽天トラベルガイド)
- TAOYA和倉 | 大江戸温泉物語グループ【公式】
More Consensus Reports
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11 sources
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和倉温泉 日本の宿 のと楽
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宝川温泉 汪泉閣
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- Secluded Retreats
TakayamaPremium
Honbo-machi, Takayama, Gifu — a quiet residential area about 2.3km west of JR Takayama Station (around 8 minutes by the inn's free shuttle) and 10 minutes' drive from the old town
9 sources
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飛騨亭 花扇
Takayama's crowd-pleaser: a wood-built, tatami-floored inn with its own silky spring piped into most rooms' open-air baths, one attendant from arrival to farewell and Hida-beef kaiseki in private dining rooms — though the water is recirculated and heated, and the cheapest rooms have no onsen at all
Read the ConsensusTakayamaClassic
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9 sources
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飛騨高山温泉 宝生閣
A five-storey hilltop inn above Takayama's old town, loved for warm, old-school service and huge Hida-beef dinners — but only the shared outdoor rock baths use (heated, recirculated) hot-spring water, and the in-room open-air baths are not onsen
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Area photoTakayu OnsenClassic
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9 sources
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高湯温泉 安達屋
A 1607 inn with milky, acidic sulphur water flowing through every bath, irori-grilled dinners and free drinks in the lounge — its famous mixed open-air bath has now been split into men's and women's sides
- Historic Ryokan
Photo credits: Wakura Onsen on Nanao Bay, Ishikawa · Jpatokal (Wikivoyage) / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Kamisuwa Onsen, Suwa, Nagano · 663highland / CC BY 2.5 / Takaragawa Onsen Osenkaku in winter, Minakami · kallerna / CC BY-SA 3.0 / Sanmachi Suji old town, Takayama, Gifu · Ankur P from Pune, India / CC BY 2.0 / Takayu Onsen in winter, Fukushima · Purplepumpkins / Public domain
TAOYA Wakura
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