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Letter from Japan: What, No Coffee?
Why I love to hate Japanese inns
By PETER McKILLOP
October 13, 1999
Web posted at 6 a.m. Hong Kong time, 6 p.m. EDT
To truly understand why Japan is such an amazing but frustrating country, you must spend some time at a ryokan, or traditional Japanese inn. Ryokan are singularly unique. Often housed in classically designed old wooden buildings, they are filled with elegant antiques, have guestrooms floored with tatami mats and offer hot mineral-water baths.
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They are a real taste of old Japan. And that is the problem. With the old look come incredibly annoying rules that often spoil the experience, in the process steadily alienating a growing number of Japanese tourists who are sick of paying a ton of money to be bossed around during their rare leisure time.
At first, the Japanese inn experience seems sublime compared to your typical cookie-cutter Hyatt hotel-like experience in other parts of the world. When you arrive, a gracious hostess in kimono escorts you to your room for a cup a tea. You are then given fresh robes called yukata that you wear for your entire stay. After a soothing soak in the baths, a lavish meal of fresh fish, tempura and other regional delicacies are served in your room, washed down by cold sake. Before retiring, guests often walk around the grounds in their robes and geta--old wooden shoes that go clack-clack through the quiet streets where ryokan are usually located. By the time you arrive back in your room, the futon mattresses have been carefully laid out for a good night's sleep.
Sounds pretty romantic, right? Well, there's more. This seemingly ultra-refined pleasure comes with a series of rules and customs, which were great 100 years ago when Japan observed a Zen-like obsession with orderly ritual but are really annoying today.
For instance, that seemingly gentle kimono-clad innkeeper is actually a closet dominatrix ready to make sure you follow her every order--or else. Before you even step into the inn, the rules are imposed. Shoes? Off at the door. In your room, you read a Japanese version of the Miranda Act: the elaborate set of ryokan do's and don'ts. Dinner is at exactly 6 p.m. No exceptions. There is no choice regarding the menu. The Japanese bathing ritual is so complex it takes years of living in Japan to understand.
But the worst experience comes the following morning. At the crack of dawn, the dreaded wakeup call destroys any hope of a leisurely sleep-in. That is followed by enough clatter and banging by the house staff to wake up neighboring China. Not that there is much to wake up to. Breakfast is always the same: some cold smoked fish, hard-boiled eggs, pungent natto (fermented tofu) and other leftovers from the night before. Wash it down with scalding green tea. If you want coffee, you might get lucky and find it in the inn bar. Then, at exactly 10 a.m., you are politely, but firmly, told to pay up--and get out.
Do the high prices, rigid refusal to adapt to changing times and complete disregard of customers' needs and cares sound familiar? Ryokan owners are cast from the same mold as some other Japanese businessmen. But, as in other industries, they no longer have a monopoly. They must now compete for the tourist dollars of increasingly sophisticated travelers who are just as likely to go to Africa than they are to the Izu Peninsula. Unless innkeepers begin to provide standards like privacy, relaxation and choice, they will find it harder and harder to survive. That would be a shame. A stay in a ryokan can be a wonderful travel experience, natto included.
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