Ryokan: What to Expect, What It Costs and Where to Stay

What is a kaiseki dinner?

Dinner is the reason many people pay ryokan prices. Kaiseki is a sequence of small courses built around what is in season and what is local, served in a fixed order and plated on ceramics chosen to suit the month.

A typical progression runs an appetizer, clear soup, sashimi, a grilled dish, a simmered dish, a fried dish, rice with pickles and miso, then fruit or a simple sweet. Ten to fourteen courses is normal. Portions are small, the total is not.

Dinner is served at a set time, usually between 17:30 and 19:00, either in your room or in a dining room. Tell the inn about allergies or dietary restrictions when you book rather than on arrival, because the menu is planned and shopped for in advance. Vegetarian and vegan requests are possible but need warning, since dashi stock made with bonito is in almost everything by default.

Breakfast is grilled fish, rice, miso soup, pickles, a small omelet and often a raw egg to crack over the rice. Western breakfast is available at larger inns if you ask ahead.

The baths

Rejuvenating Onsen

Most ryokan worth staying in have hot spring water. The communal baths are separated by gender, and many inns swap the men's and women's sides partway through the night so everyone gets both views.

Wash thoroughly at the seated showers before getting in, keep the small towel out of the water, and do not wear a swimsuit. Baths are typically open from mid-afternoon until late and again early in the morning, with a break for cleaning.

If communal bathing is not for you, look for a room with a private open-air bath, or book a kashikiri rental bath by the 45-minute slot. That is also the standard workaround for tattoos, which many traditional inns still refuse in the communal baths. A full breakdown of Japan's spa and hot spring options covers the difference between the tiers if you are deciding where to spend.

Ryokan etiquette

Shoes come off at the entrance, where you will be given slippers. Slippers come off before you step on tatami, since nothing but socks or bare feet goes on the mats. There is a separate pair of slippers for the toilet, and leaving in them is the classic visitor mistake.

Wear the yukata left side over right, the way you would wrap a bathrobe. Right over left is how the dead are dressed. The sash ties at the waist, men lower and women higher, and in a hot spring town it is normal to wear it out to dinner and around the streets.

Arrive when you said you would. Check-in is usually 15:00 to 17:00, and turning up at 20:00 disrupts a kitchen that has been cooking toward your arrival. Curfews still exist at some traditional inns, often around 23:00.

Tipping is not done and can cause awkwardness. Service is included, and at higher-end inns a service charge appears on the bill.

How much does a ryokan cost?

Rates are quoted per person, not per room, and almost always include dinner and breakfast. That catches people out when they compare a ryokan to a hotel room rate.

• Minshuku and simple inns: ¥8,000 to ¥15,000 per person with meals

• Mid-range ryokan: ¥15,000 to ¥30,000 per person

• Well-known ryokan with private baths: ¥35,000 to ¥60,000 per person

• Luxury and famous names: ¥80,000 to ¥200,000 per person

Weekends, holidays and the peak fall foliage weeks run 30 to 50 percent above weekday rates. A room-only rate is sometimes available and saves money, but skipping dinner at a ryokan usually means skipping the best part.

Where to stay: the best ryokan regions

Kyoto

Kyoto

Kyoto's inn district has the most refined city ryokan in the country, several of them over a century old, concentrated around Gion and the Kamo River. Few have real hot spring water, since the city is not volcanic, so what you are paying for here is the architecture, the garden and the food.

Prices are among Japan's highest, and the best-known houses book out six months to a year ahead in the cherry blossom and fall color seasons. Inns with private open-air baths in Kyoto are the practical alternative for travelers who want the experience without communal bathing.

Hakone

Hakone

the Hakone hot spring area is the most convenient hot spring area for a first trip, roughly 90 minutes from Shinjuku, with real volcanic water and views of Fuji on a clear morning from some baths. It slots neatly between Tokyo and Kyoto, so you can break the journey rather than making a special trip.

Expect a wide range, from ¥15,000 a head in older inns near Hakone-Yumoto to well past ¥100,000 in the Gora and Sengokuhara properties.

Takayama and the mountain towns

Japanese Old Town

For the version with fewer tour groups, go inland. Takayama in the Gifu mountains has family inns in the old merchant district where dinner is river fish, mountain vegetables and Hida beef. Nearby Okuhida, Kinosaki on the Sea of Japan coast, and Nozawa Onsen in the ski country all deliver the same at lower prices than Kyoto or Hakone.

Kurokawa in Kyushu, Ginzan in Yamagata and Yudanaka near the snow monkeys are the other names worth knowing. Several of Japan's best-known hot spring towns are built almost entirely of ryokan.

Tokyo

Tokyo

Tokyo itself has relatively few traditional ryokan, and most are modest inns in Asakusa and Yanaka rather than hot spring properties. They are a reasonable way to sleep on tatami for ¥10,000 to ¥20,000 a night, but treat them as a taste rather than the real thing, and save the proper stay for the mountains.

How to book a ryokan

Book earlier than you would a hotel. Popular inns open reservations six months to a year out, and the best rooms, the ones with private baths or garden views, go first.

Booking sites like Rakuten Travel and Jalan list far more Japanese inns than the international platforms, and a number of small ryokan take reservations only by phone or email. If an inn's website has an English page, use it, since direct booking often gets you a better room for the same rate.

When you book, specify the number of guests rather than rooms, confirm whether meals are included, state any dietary needs, and give an arrival time. If you are arriving by train, most inns in hot spring towns will collect you from the station if you ask.

Should you stay in a ryokan?

Ryokan Stay

Yes, at least one night. It is the single most distinctive lodging experience in Japan, and doing it once tells you more about the culture than a week of temples.

Two nights in one ryokan is better than one night in two, because the first evening goes on learning where everything is. Put it in the middle of a trip rather than at the start, when jet lag will waste the bath, or at the end, when you are packing.

For a two-week trip, one ryokan night in Hakone or Takayama and one in Kyoto is the standard shape, and this 14-day route through Tokyo, Hakone and Kyoto builds it in without adding travel days.

Book the room with the private bath if it is offered and you can afford it. Skip dinner in your room if the alternative is a dining room with a view. And do not plan anything for the evening you arrive, because the whole point is that the inn has already planned it for you.