Ryokan

A ryokan room is floored with tatami mats and furnished with a low table and floor chairs (zaisu). An alcove (tokonoma) displays a hanging scroll and a flower arrangement chosen for the season, and sliding paper screens (shōji) often open onto a veranda or garden. Many rooms have a small sitting area by the window with Western chairs.

During dinner or in the evening, staff clear the table and lay out futon mattresses and quilts; in the morning they are put away again. Some modern ryokan have beds, and higher-grade rooms may have their own open-air bath.

Most ryokan have large communal baths, separated by sex, and in hot spring towns these are fed by natural spring water; many also have an outdoor rotenburo or private baths that can be reserved. Onsen etiquette applies: wash first, bathe without swimwear and keep towels out of the water.

Guests wear the cotton yukata provided in the room, often with a haori jacket in cooler months, around the inn, to dinner and in onsen towns even on the streets. The left side is folded over the right; right over left is reserved for the dead.

Dinner is the centrepiece of the stay, usually a kaiseki-style sequence of small seasonal dishes featuring local produce: sashimi, grilled fish, simmered vegetables, a hot pot, rice, pickles and miso soup. It is served either in the room or in a dining room, at a time agreed on arrival, often within a fixed window in the early evening.

Breakfast is a Japanese spread of grilled fish, rice, miso soup, egg, pickles and small side dishes, with Western options at some inns. Dietary requirements should be stated when booking, as menus are prepared in advance.

Shoes are taken off at the entrance (genkan) and exchanged for slippers, which are in turn left outside the room before stepping onto tatami; separate toilet slippers are used only in the toilet. Check-in is usually in the afternoon, and arriving much later than the agreed time can disrupt dinner, so late arrivals should be announced.

Large suitcases can be awkward in traditional inns with narrow corridors; many guests forward luggage and bring only an overnight bag. Tipping is not expected, and the price is normally quoted per person, including tax and service, with a local bathing tax (nyūtō-zei) added in hot spring municipalities.

Ryokan are found throughout Japan, but the atmosphere is richest in the traditional hot spring towns, where inns line rivers and streets and guests stroll between public baths in yukata and geta.