Welcome to Flyertalk and thanks for resurrecting this thread I started a year ago. My wife and I spent two nights at the Yatsusan Ryokan. It was the highlight of our trip. I would highly, highly recommend it. The staff picked us up at the train station and escorted us with paper umbrellas in the rain from the door of the van to the door of the Ryokan. We knew we were in for a great experience.

They don't serve food in your room but other than that, based on my research it was an authentic, traditional, ryokan experience. The dinners consisted of a never-ending series of appertizer-sized dishes. Breakfast was a bit much for both of us. It was a little too-authentic. I didn't quite know what to make of the cooked herbal or weed-like material they put over a small flame in our private dining room. Each party has its own walled-off dining area. The tatami beds are nice as are the thermal baths. The building is pretty as well and you get to wear fun robes to bed. Mine had pictures of baseballs on it. The only drawback we had was the result of an earthquake in another part of Japan. The train line back to Takayama and south to Nagoya was closed. We had to try to communicate with the staff which speaks little English about alternative travel plans. Luckily, a Japanese guest spoke enough English to help us find a bus in town that would take us to Toyama where we could catch the train to Kyoto, our next destination. We ended up waiting about 1 hour + for the bus. My wife felt the Ryokan staff gave us the wrong bus time because they wanted us out of the establishment because it was almost noon by the time we left. I'm not so sure.

We ended up not having enough money for the bus which led to a comical exchange between us and the driver and my wife ultimately trying to communicate with him and keep him busy while I ran around central Toyama trying to find the post office whose ATM would take my American bank card. I digress. The Yatsusan Ryokan is great. Stay there.