Overview

At ONSEN & STAY OAKHILL, you can enjoy the mountain air, forest scenery, and powerful natural springs of Zao Onsen. The property reopened with a relaxed bed-and-breakfast concept in September 2024, giving you the freedom to plan each day around bathing, sightseeing, skiing, and local dining.

The high-ceilinged lobby lounge looks out toward the trees and changing mountain landscape. You can sit beside the fireplace, enjoy a complimentary drink, or choose a manga from the large reading collection before returning to the hot spring baths.

Zao Onsen’s central streets are around five minutes away on foot. You can explore the public bathhouses, restaurants, cafés, and small shops before returning to the quieter hillside setting. In winter, the nearby ski slopes bring you close to Zao’s deep snow and famous frost-covered trees. During the warmer months, mountain walks, ropeway rides, volcanic scenery, and open-air bathing shape your stay.

Accommodation

You can choose from 30 non-smoking rooms in Japanese, Western, and Japanese-Western styles. Most rooms include a private bathroom, while every room has a toilet. Views bring you close to Zao’s trees, mountains, and seasonal colours.

The 50-square-metre Deluxe Japanese-Western Room gives you a separate Western bedroom, a tatami room, and a broad window-side veranda. Western beds provide an easy sleeping arrangement, while the tatami area gives you space to sit, talk, or relax in a traditional setting. When additional futons are needed, you prepare them yourself in the Japanese room. This room also includes a private bathroom.

The Standard Twin is a 21-square-metre Western room with two single beds. The simple layout works well when you prefer a familiar bed and your own bathroom after a day in the mountains.

The Standard Japanese Room has a spacious 10-tatami layout with a window-side veranda. You sleep on futons and enjoy the open floor space during the day. You prepare the futons yourself when you are ready to sleep. A private bathroom and toilet are included.

The 30-square-metre Corner Club Triple places three low beds in a 10-tatami Japanese room. Its corner position provides windows with views of Zao’s changing scenery. You can enjoy the feel of tatami without needing to sleep on a futon. This room also includes a private bathroom.

The 30-square-metre Club Room combines a 10-tatami floor with low beds and a broad veranda. The flat sleeping arrangement and open layout create an easy place to rest after skiing, walking, or hot spring bathing.

The smaller Club Room measures 21 square metres and has an eight-tatami layout with low beds. This room suits a solo stay or a trip for two. It includes a toilet but does not have a private bathroom, so you use the shared natural hot spring baths for bathing.

Your room includes a television, electric kettle, refrigerator, hairdryer, Wi-Fi, towels, yukata, toiletries, and a toilet with bidet functions. Geta sandals and children’s slippers are also available.

Dining

A complimentary breakfast gives you a simple and filling start to your morning. Breakfast normally combines a prepared plate with a small buffet of bread, rice, miso soup, coffee, and other light items. On selected days, the full meal may follow a buffet format.

Dinner is not served on site, allowing you to choose where and when you eat. Zao Onsen’s dining area is within walking distance and includes restaurants serving local dishes, izakaya food, grilled meat, noodles, and other casual meals. Opening days can change, so booking your preferred restaurant before arrival gives you a smoother evening.

Zao is closely associated with jingisukan, a grilled lamb dish cooked on a rounded metal grill. You can also look for Yamagata specialities and local sake as you explore the onsen town.

Onsen and Wellness

The hot spring baths use milky-white Zao Onsen water flowing directly from the source. The spring has one of the strongest levels of acidity found in the area, giving the water a distinctive character and a smooth feeling after bathing.

The spring is classified as an acidic, sulfur-containing, aluminium, sulfate and chloride hot spring. Traditional bathing indications include cuts, minor burns, sensitivity to cold, neuralgia, muscle discomfort, frozen shoulder, chronic skin conditions, and some chronic gynaecological conditions.

Shinra-no-Yu includes indoor baths with different water temperatures and open-air baths made from Zao stone and cypress. Oak trees surround the outdoor area, allowing you to soak close to the forest throughout the changing seasons.

Bansho-no-Yu also combines indoor and outdoor bathing. Outside, you can move between a freestanding cypress bath and a bath built from Zao stone. The deeper indoor tub allows the mineral-rich water to cover more of your body as you soak.

The two bathing areas rotate between men and women, allowing you to experience both designs during your stay. The baths remain available throughout the day and night apart from cleaning between 10:00 and 13:00. A short evening changeover may also apply, so you should check the bathing schedule displayed inside the property.

The strongly acidic water may irritate sensitive skin or small cuts. Remove metal jewellery before bathing, as the spring’s acidity can affect some metals. Rinse carefully when needed and avoid staying in the water for too long during your first soak.

Guests with Tattoos

If you have tattoos, bring waterproof tattoo covers and confirm access before entering the shared indoor or open-air baths. Your tattoos should remain fully covered while you use communal bathing areas.

Facilities

During your stay, you can use the high-ceilinged lobby lounge, fireplace seating, complimentary beverage corner, evening bar area, free beer service during selected evening hours, and a reading corner with around 1,000 manga books. A yukata and amenity corner allows you to collect useful items as needed, while rental equipment and a coin-operated laundry support longer stays. Free Wi-Fi is available in the rooms and shared areas.

The self-check-in system allows you to enter without completing a traditional front-desk procedure. After finishing the online check-in process, you receive your room number and door code through the link sent to your registered email address. If you cannot complete the process on your own device, you can enter the check-in code on the tablet near the entrance.

Activities

You can walk to the centre of Zao Onsen in around five minutes and enjoy three traditional public bathhouses. Your stay also includes access to a bath-hopping program across participating Takamiya group properties, giving you the chance to compare different bath designs and atmospheres around the onsen town. Participating facilities and operating times may change.

The Uwanodai ski area is around five minutes away on foot, making OAKHILL a convenient base for skiing and snowboarding. During the coldest part of winter, you can ride the Zao Ropeway toward the upper mountain and see the juhyo, the frost-covered trees often known as Zao’s snow monsters, when weather conditions allow them to form.

Outside the winter season, you can ride the Zao Central Ropeway, visit the large Zao open-air bath, walk around Dokko Pond, or follow mountain routes through Iroha Pond and Kansho-daira. The Zao Echo Line leads toward Okama, the volcanic crater lake known for water that changes appearance with the light and weather. Road and sightseeing access depend on seasonal conditions.

You can also enjoy fruit picking around Yamagata, visit the Yamagata Sake Museum, play golf, or travel farther for the Mogami River boat ride, Yamagata Castle ruins, Bunshokan, and the mountain temples and historic buildings of the region.

Additional Features

Check-in begins at 15:00, with arrival required by 20:00, and check-out is at 10:00. Every room is non-smoking.

A complimentary shuttle is available from Zao Onsen Bus Terminal. After reaching the terminal, you can contact the property for collection, with the drive taking around five minutes. You can also walk from the terminal in approximately ten minutes.

Complimentary parking is available, and online reservations use advance card payment. The number-lock room system allows you to enter with a code rather than carrying a physical key.