# Michi-no-Eki Yonezawa

> A large station opened in 2018 about 200 meters from Yonezawa-Chuo IC on the Tohoku-Chuo Expressway. Come for Yonezawa beef, Yonezawa ramen and Okitama produce, then head into the old castle town.

- Prefecture: Yamagata
- Type: Michi no eki
- Address: Yonezawa, Yamagata, Japan
- Opening hours: Mon–Sun 09:00–18:00
- Hours note: The souvenir hall is open 9:00 to 18:00, and the food court and restaurant 10:00 to 18:00. There is no regular closing day. Road information is available 24 hours; the shops are not.
- Parking and toilets: free, open 24 hours
- Official site: https://michinoeki-yonezawa.jp/

Yonezawa beef is the reason most people pull in. Gyubitei, the station’s restaurant, serves it as steak, hamburg and beef sushi, and the food court does the cheaper version: gyudon, Yonezawa ramen with its thin curly noodles, and ita-soba piled into a wooden box. If the beef is the point of your trip, the restaurant is the better bet.

The station opened in April 2018 next to Yonezawa-Chuo IC, and the buildings are styled after a castle town. Inside there is a tourist information desk, a souvenir hall and a market for produce from the Okitama basin. It was Yamagata’s first designated key roadside station, and it is busy, especially at lunch.

You leave the expressway and you are there, which makes this an easy first stop before Uesugi Shrine and the the castle park in the city center. Without a car, a one-coin taxi links the station with JR Yonezawa Station, and the station rents bicycles.

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Source: Michi-no-Eki Yonezawa — Japan Voyage