dining and fun.
Time, experiences, relationships —these are precious. Time in a Japanese inn does not beat to high-speed rhythms. Is that not why ryokan time appeals? The rich experience of truly feeling one with Japanese-style living, even for a night and a day, is rare and yes, very different. Interacting with hosts and fellow inn guests takes the meaning of international understanding to a personal level. The more guests know of ryokan and onsen expectations and customs, the more they can feel at ease. Allow these particular Japanese customs to suavely coax all who cross the threshold, who slip into steamy hot spring waters to pause… to relinquish distracting concerns… to delight in the many exquisite facets of a Japanese spa inn. Here are essential truths of some ryokan and onsen rituals:
If you are not fluent in Japanese, it is better to fax or e-mail your reservation. English is more easily understood in writing than on the phone. You can expect a written response. Keep in mind that for the most part, English is little understood. Unless we have stated that an innkeeper is fluent, you should expect to try to speak Japanese.
The New Year (January 1–3), Golden Week (April 29–May 5), and Obon (August 13–15) are Japan’s highest travel seasons. Expect to pay maximum rates, and be aware that rooms are often booked more than a year in advance for these popular times.
Since a night in a ryokan includes a set dinner and breakfast, rates are per person and not by room. Usually, service charges are included in the rate, but some ryokan charge an additional 10 to 15 percent. A five percent consumption tax and a bathing tax of ¥150 per person will be added to your bill.
Personal checks are not popular in Japan and are rarely accepted by ryokan. Most ryokan accept major credit cards, but it is wise to confirm acceptable means of payment when making reservations.
Tipping is generally not customary in Japan, but if you wish to express appreciation for unusually attentive hospitality and room service provided by your nakai-san (“maid”) upon departure, you can present ¥2,000–3,000 in a small envelope.
Saryo-soen in Sendai, a boutique ryokan on six-and-a-half acres in the Akiu Onsen region.
A Japanese cypress-wood tub at Yusai ryokan filled with steaming water from the Kurokawa hot spring.
A nakai-san is the specific hostess assigned to care for you during your stay. Upon arrival, you are likely to be welcomed by the nakai-san and guided to your room. She will help you fill out the hotel register. She may serve you tea and a sweet bun, and—depending on the ryokan—serve you dinner and breakfast. She will explain where dinner will be served and may ask if you have a time preference. At some point during the evening, she will return to your room to pull out the futon (one or two floor mattresses and a cover quilt) for sleeping. Traditional Japanese pillows are filled with buckwheat husks.
Check-in is usually around 2:00 or 3:00 pm, and it is best to arrive before 4:00 pm, if you would like to follow Japanese custom and enjoy a spa bath before dinner.
At the inn entrance (genkan) you will find slippers for you to use during your stay. You should leave your shoes in the entryway and use slippers within the inn. Remove your slippers before stepping on fragile tatami floors, and use the special bathroom slippers, when provided. Try to avoid the comedy of being spied in your bathroom slippers outside of the bathroom! If you decide to take a stroll in the garden, use the zori or geta thoughtfully provided for you. Leave your in-house slippers beside the garden door and slip on Japanese outdoor footwear.
A typical Japanese-style room will come with a tokonoma, an alcove display for flowers and treasured works of art. This seemingly empty space is considered sacred and is, therefore, not a spot to sit or stash your bags. Each guest is supplied with a yukata, an informal cotton kimono, and a haori or tanzen, short robes often made of silk stripes. Yukata, haori and tanzen are to be worn anywhere within the inn, and yukata may also be used as pajamas. Tie your yukata with the left collar on the top. Buddhist tradition stipulates that the right flap only appears on top when a person is dead.
Onsen are often open all day and night, although they may be closed for mid-morning cleaning. The frequency with which you take to the baths is up to you. It is not uncommon to visit the baths before dinner, after dinner, late in the evening, after drinks in the bar, and before or after breakfast.
You may think you know, but here is “how” to take a bath: don your yukata and feel free to bring a small cosmetics bag of preferred toiletries, shampoo, comb or brush. Generic brands of shampoo and body wash are usually provided. Bring along the towel or towels provided in your room. Men and women’s baths are most often segregated, and entrances are usually labeled in different colors. In the changing room, place your yukata in one of the baskets. Bring the small towel and any toiletries to the showering area. Before entering the mineral baths, wash your body with the hand-held shower nozzle or bucket (oke). Beside the onsen waters there may be a small mineral water bath (kakeyu) for pre-washing your body and acclimatizing it to the hot temperatures. Fill a bucket with these waters and splash them over you prior to entering the communal bath. Take the small towel with you into the hot springs area. That scant piece of terrycloth is your only chance of modesty, but it is not to enter the waters. Some people drape the towel over their heads, others set it aside.
Guests at Yumoto Choza, situated at the foot of the northern Japanese Alps, can choose to hike, climb or wander in the white birch forests.
Onsen temperatures vary. Waters can be warm and comforting, sometimes very hot. The soothing benefits can be felt after only a few minutes, so feel free to alternate between hot and cooler baths. Since the mineral content of certain waters is particularly good for the skin, it is not considered necessary to bathe or rinse after a final soak.
Some inns have private onsen baths adjoining the rooms or kazukoburo, family baths for private use. But communal bathing is as Japanese as the ukiyo-e wood-block prints that fascinated and inspired American Impressionist Mary Cassatt. Her now famous “Woman Bathing” is a focused, unselfconscious tribute to a ritual that holds great meaning for the Japanese. Stroking the body with soap, removing a day’s dirt and floating in a warm watery buoyant embrace—these are pleasures and spa joys the Japanese continue to hold dear.
Private hinoki wood rotenburo in the Kadan Suite.
GORA KADAN Hakone, Kanagawa
The Eden-like intimacy of bathing among the trees and forests of bamboo where pine alone bear witness. A gentle massage with the purest of aromatic plant oils. Shiatsu or Swedish-trained fingers kneading meridians, opening channels of potential energy, slipping from hot, hot waters to open-air baths—a relief, a release, a spa as the sophisticated and the over-scheduled have come to know and appreciate. Welcome to Gora Kadan.
A member of the exemplary Relais & Chateaux group, Gora Kadan knows how to please guests with the most exacting standards. Set in onsen-rich Hakone National Park, Gora Kadan was originally a resort house for relatives of the Imperial family. In 1952 it became a public ryokan, and in 1989, its main building, a luxurious triumph of bamboo, stone, tile and native woods, was built by a series of prominent architects. Its spa, called Kako, or “Fragrance of Flowers,” is housed in a traditional Japanese villa and provides facials, revitalizing cellular body treatments using Swiss herbs, and therapies using salt from the Dead Sea. The inn’s chief of guest relations greets guests by name and unobtrusively reminds visiting foreigners of ryokan rites and wrongs.
All of the 37 rooms come with unique bathrooms en suite and mini-bars, and seven rooms have private rotenburo. There are two onsen and two rotenburo for communal use. The rooms are grand in size, serene in lighting, minimalist in design. Some rooms have low tatami beds; some are pure Japanese