Yamagata
山形市38°15′ N 140°20′ ECityPop. 247,234Tohoku
Yamagata suits travellers who want a city base on the shinkansen with buses to Zao Onsen and trains to Sendai and Yamadera. The trade-off for skiers is a 37-minute bus ride each way to the slopes.
Photo 663highland · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 and others, credited in the gallery
Who should base here
Stay in Yamagata if you want restaurants, business hotels and a train station within walking distance, with Zao Onsen as a day trip for skiing or the snow monsters.
The name
Yamagata
山形One theory reads the name as a written form of yamagata, the hill side of the district, set against the plain and village sides.
japanese
The encyclopedia lists several theories and settles on none.
Eat in Yamagata
Drink in Yamagata
Yamagata is the prefectural capital, and the Yamagata Shinkansen reaches it from Tokyo in about two hours forty minutes on the fastest Tsubasa. Buses for Zao Onsen leave from in front of the station, and the JR Senzan Line runs over the mountains to Sendai in under an hour and a half. Yamadera, the temple on the cliff, is 18 minutes away on the same line.
Food is the reason to stop a night. Imoni, a pot of taro and beef in soy broth, belongs to autumn here, and the city holds a festival each mid-September on the riverbank with a pot 6.5 metres across. The prefecture's soba comes on long wooden trays as ita soba, and the city's own cold chicken and soba bowls turn up on lunch menus all year.
Worth knowing
- Leave the morning for Yamadera and the afternoon for Zao. The Senzan Line and the Zao bus both start at Yamagata Station, so you never double back far.
Quick answers about Yamagataよくある質問
How long is the bus from Yamagata Station to Zao Onsen?
The Yamako bus takes 37 minutes from Yamagata Station to the Zao Onsen bus terminal and cost ¥1,200 in October 2026.
When is imoni season in Yamagata?
Imoni is an autumn dish, eaten when the taro comes in. The Japan's No.1 Imoni Festival takes over the riverbank in Yamagata city in mid-September.
What does the name Yamagata mean?
Yamagata comes from the local name Yamagata, meaning one theory reads the name as a written form of yamagata, the hill side of the district, set against the plain and village sides. The encyclopedia lists several theories and settles on none.
Is Yamagata a good place to stay?
Stay in Yamagata if you want restaurants, business hotels and a train station within walking distance, with Zao Onsen as a day trip for skiing or the snow monsters.
Within 12 km
Places to stay nearby宿
Within 12 km
Places to eat and drink nearby食
Within 12 km