Shosuke no Yado Takinoyu

A big riverside inn on the spot where Higashiyama Onsen began, with open-air baths beside a floodlit waterfall, seven private baths and famous breakfast mochi — but the cheaper rooms are cramped, the building is full of steps, and 2026 reviews flag smells and patchy upkeep

Takinoyu stands where Higashiyama Onsen is said to have begun: according to the inn, the monk Gyōki found the spring about 1,300 years ago beside Fushimi-ga-taki, the broad waterfall right next to the building, and the inn itself has been running for more than 140 years. Its other name, Shōsuke no Yado, nods to Ohara Shōsuke of the folk song 'Aizu Bandaisan', whose stone bath is on display. Behind the old-inn entrance, the long riverside building has been heavily renovated: a sake-tasting corner, library and view foot bath in 2022, a new rooftop private bath in 2023, and eight fully redone 'Roman-tei' rooms in December 2024. Japanese guests rate it 4.41 across 4,178 reviews on one major site (baths 4.50) and 4.3 across 5,888 on another. Bloggers who stayed in 2022, 2023 and 2024, and dozens of 2026 reviewers, praise bathing right beside the floodlit falls; the free extras — matcha and yōkan on arrival, beer and soft-serve after the bath, a nightly projection-mapping show on the noh stage across the river; the Aizu kaiseki dinner of carp, horse sashimi and kozuyu soup; and above all the freshly pounded mochi at breakfast. The catch: this is a big, busy house of about 50 rooms. In 2026 reviews, guests on cheap 'leave the room to us' plans got rooms by the dining hall or with only a shower booth, and others mention musty or drain smells, dust and mould in bathrooms, summer humidity and insects, steps everywhere, distant car parks, no one at the desk to guide them, and dinners some found plain. Two-meal stays mostly run about ¥14,000–24,000 per person.