How to get to Yamada Onsen
from Tokyo or Nagano Station

Yamada Onsen is at the end of a mountain road in Takayama Village, Nagano. It is not hard to reach. It is just not obvious from a train map.

The short version: Shinkansen to Nagano Station, then our free shuttle. Overnight guests reserve the shuttle in advance and do not need a car at all.

Below is each leg in turn — the Shinkansen, the shuttle, driving, and the train-and-bus route — with the times and the things that catch people out.

Tokyo to Nagano Station: 90 to 100 minutes

The Hokuriku Shinkansen runs from Tokyo Station to Nagano Station in 90 to 100 minutes, according to the official Nagano prefectural travel guide, Go! NAGANO.

From Kanazawa the same line takes 70 to 90 minutes. From Nagoya it is about 3 hours on the Limited Express Shinano. From Osaka or Kyoto, most people change at Nagoya, which comes to roughly four and a half to five hours in total.

Nagano Station is where every route converges. Once you are there, the rest is short.

Nagano Station to MATSUKAWAKAN: the free shuttle, three times a day

This is the easiest way, and it is free. It is also the leg people forget to book.

To reserve it, write the departure time you would like in the notes field when you book on the official booking site. We also take shuttle requests by phone and on our official LINE account.

Our staff speak Japanese, and we serve guests from overseas with translation apps. Please do not let that stop you from asking. Full details are on the access page.

By car: about 40 minutes, and free parking

If you are driving, it is about 40 minutes from Nagano Station. Google Maps put the quickest route at 24.9 km and about 46 minutes when we measured it in August 2026.

Parking is free, in the village-run car park, which has around ten spaces. The address for a satnav is 3507-1 Yamada Onsen, Takayama Village, Kamitakai District, Nagano 382-0816, Japan.

In the cold months, snow and ice are ordinary here. Please come on studless winter tyres, and allow more time than the map says.

By train and bus, without a car

There is a route that does not depend on us at all, which is useful if you arrive outside the shuttle times.

From JR Nagano Station, take the Nagano Line of the Nagano Dentetsu railway to Suzaka Station, about 20 minutes. From Suzaka it is about 30 minutes by taxi to MATSUKAWAKAN, or about 50 minutes on a Nagaden bus to the Yamada Onsen bus stop.

The taxi is the simple option and the bus is the cheap one. Timetables change with the season, so please check them on the day you travel.

About rail passes, honestly

This is where we would rather say less than more, because pass conditions change and they differ by pass.

The Hokuriku Shinkansen is a JR line. The Nagano Dentetsu railway and the local buses are not — they are run by a separate private company. A rail pass that covers the Shinkansen leg does not automatically cover the local leg.

Please check the conditions of your own pass before you travel, and treat any figure you read online, including ours, as something to confirm. If the shuttle suits your arrival time, it removes the question entirely.

What is waiting at the end of the road

MATSUKAWAKAN takes nine guest parties a night, beside a spring first opened 700 years ago.

The inner bath runs free-flowing from the source, open to overnight guests from 11:00 until 24:00. There are two saunas, one of them private, and two public bathhouses within a minute's walk of the door.

Check-in is at 15:00 and check-out at 10:00, so the 14:00 shuttle from Nagano Station lands you here with the afternoon still ahead. What the village is like is on our Yamada Onsen and Takayama Village page.

Frequently asked questions