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You're visiting Randy Johnson's "Favorite Getaways in Rural Japan",
Copyrighted © 1991-2008 by Randy R.
Johnson.
Lodging Shortcuts
Generalities
Kokumin-Shukusha
These are the four general types of lodgings that you will find in the Japanese countryside. Both minshukus and ryokans are traditional Japanese inns, with tatami rooms (with reed mat floors) without a private bath. Toilets, basins, and the bath are down the hall, but some more modern (and expensive) ryokans may have a basin (or even a full bathroom) in the room. Ryokans are generally nicer and more expensive than minshukus (see below).
'Resort' hotels are found at larger popular tourist areas in the countryside and are a cross between a hotel and a ryokan. They are large and cater to larger groups. They often have private bathrooms in the rooms as well as nice communal bathing rooms. Larger resort hotels may have some western rooms but most will be Japanese-style (tatami) rooms; western-style hotels are usually found only in cities. These are not generally 'international resorts' of the three- or four-star variety; the accomodation and service may be about the average or better for a ryokan, but in a larger, less cozy venue. They typically belong to the Ryokan association, and may be listed under ryokans, but call themselves "Hotels" on "Inns". To serve larger groups, they may have banquet halls, conference rooms, bars, karaoke rooms, coffee shops, and game arcades. (Not always like 'getting away from it all'.)
A pension is a westernized version of a minshuku -- or more accurately, a Japanese version of the European "pensióne" (a boarding house) -- which has appeared only in recent years, and is not found everywhere. Like minshukus, pensions are found in the countryside, but often in areas away from even the smaller towns. Pensions are typically used by younger people, many of whom come by car. They are often of quaint western architecture, sometimes like a chalet or ranch house, and usually have simple, but private, western-style rooms with wooden floors (and actual beds!) and a common dining room with tables and chairs, although some may also have tatami rooms. The food at a pension may be Japanese or western, and a few serve only breakfast. There is usually a Japanese bath, but, in the western tradition, there may only be showers. Pension prices vary, but tend to be closer to the rate of a minshuku.
"Japanese-style" Wa-fu Pensions have begun appearing. They
typically have Japanese-style rooms, food, etc, but they
seem to want to distinguish themselves from minshukus in
being more informal, and perhaps with more basic facilities, for
younger people. They may, for example just have a shower, or may
have tables and chairs in the dining room -- more like a Japanese
apartment; as always, each place is different. You
may distinguish such a place by the characters "Wa-fu"
(
= 'Japanese-style') near or just before
the word "Pension", on their signage.
When you do find yourself having to spend a night away from the quiet pleasures of the countryside, you'll need to find a City Hotel, mentioned briefly, below. A few other lodging options, like Youth Hostels, Temples, Camping, etc. are also covered in Other Lodgings, just below...
Here are the characters to look for:
Minshuku = 
Ryokan = 
Hotel = 
Pension = 
Generalities
For all rural lodgings, dinner and breakfast are normally included in the price, and in many country locations there will be no other places to eat. Meals are always fixed, everybody gets the same food, unless you have made special arrangements. Hotels and pensions may have the option of a western-style breakfast, but elsewhere it is almost always Japanese-style. That means rice, miso soup, green tea, seaweed, pickles, a raw egg, and maybe broiled fish or fermented soybeans. You get used to it. (If you don't want the raw egg, you can often get them to boil it for you.)
The furniture in a traditional tatami room consists of a low table and some cushions (called zabuTON), with maybe an extra night table. There is often a mirror on a stand, which may have a cover over it. The bedding is futon quilts which are stored in the closets during the daytime, and laid out on the floor of the room at night -- heavy quilts or covered foam pads make a somewhat soft mattress. That's it!
Any traditional guest room will have a small "alcove" called the tokonoma; this is a venerated (but not religiously sacred) area about the size of one tatami mat (1x2 meters), which is usually (but not always) raised a few inches above the floor. This raised alcove may typically contain a flower arrangement and some work of art on the wall. It will always have a rough wooden post forming one corner, and may have a set of offset shelves attached to the wall, perhaps displaying some other works of minor or folk art. In cheaper places, it may also house a small room safe, television, or the telephone, though this is a bit tacky. Do not put your luggage or other stuff in this alcove; it is meant to be the center of the room's "soul" of aesthetic beauty.
Room prices are always per person, and two people sharing a room will pay the same, per person, as a single person in one room. You pay when you leave; if you're using a credit card, make sure they accept it when you check in. At any lodging, it is customary for the host to serve tea to you on your arrival. This almost always happens in your room, and gives you both a chance to ask a few questions. All lodgings keep refrigerators full of beer, juice, and sodas and will also bring sake and whisky to your room, perhaps accompanied with a few nibbles. At a minshuku, the refrigerator may be self-service. The charges go on your bill.
Security
You will often find no locks on the room doors of traditional Japanese inns, and the staff may come and go -- especially in nicer Ryokans -- delivering your meals and making up your bedding. Japan is still one of the safest countries in the world. Japanese typically wander around carrying oodles of cash and never worry about it. Most people pay for their rooms in cash (so many small inns don't bother allowing credit cards). Women walk most anyplace at any hour without fear of molestation. Of course bad stuff does occasionally happen, and you should use a little common sense here, but most foreigners find themselves being absolutely paranoid compared to the average Japanese. Women do sometimes get groped on crowded city trains, and it is possible to have luggage snatched from the largest of railway stations, but in most of the rural places you are going to, you could leave your bags laying around and no one would think of taking them. Should you commit the faux pas of leaving a tip in a restaurant, it is likely you will be chased down to have your money returned.
The differences between a minshuku and a ryokan are not always obvious from the outside, although ryokans tend to be nicer traditional buildings with more space, while minshukus may be in more ordinary, and more cramped houses. There are two separate national associations that govern the different standards for the two types of lodgings. The aim of the Minshuku Association is to provide 'economical' accommodation in a less formal "boarding house" atmosphere, while ryokans are meant to give a higher quality of service for discerning guests. An inn must meet higher standards of accommodation and service to join the Ryokan Association.
Minshukus are cheaper than ryokans and are traditionally private homes which rent out rooms. While this is still the case in some isolated villages where rooms are only opened during the summer tourist season, in most places of moderate tourist interest, minshukus are full-time businesses. Minshukus are almost never found in large cities (although they do appear in some provincial centers), while ryokans are. In the countryside, minshukus far outnumber ryokans and hotels.
In general, at a ryokan you will get a nicer room, a nicer bath, and you can expect a sumptuous dinner served in your room. While it can vary quite a bit from place to place, at a ryokan you are treated more as a respected guest, while minshukus tend to be less formal, a little more like folks visiting. This is natural, since you end up eating with the "family", and sometimes the informality of rural innkeepers can reach unmannered familiarity.
At a ryokan, you can pretty much be alone with your friends if you want to be; at a minshuku, you will meet and talk with people, including the owners, in the dinning room, and occasionally continue drinking there into the night. If you are a foreigner, and feel like being left alone after a long day, a ryokan or hotel is the place to go. If you want to talk to the locals and perhaps meet someone to explore town with, go to a minshuku. In smaller villages, minshukus are often all that is available.
The quality of minshukus varies widely. In a small fishing village you will get little more than a small room for the night, a bath, and a simple meal in a family home. In a touristed town, you can expect a nicer place with good food and lots of local information. A few minshukus are really much more like ryokans, serving a nice dinner in your room, having very nice baths, and are priced accordingly.
As a rule of thumb, a ryokan costs about one and a half times as much as a minshuku in the same area. As I mentioned, some minshukus are as nice as ryokans, and I have also stayed in cheaper rural 'ryokans' where meals were served in the dining room. So while the general naming rules don't always apply, you usually get what you pay for. Minshuku prices are usually all the same in the same town, so price is seldom an issue.
A very nice Japanese meal, served in your room, is much of what you pay for in a ryokan, and most will not allow you to pay for a room only. Breakfast is usually served in your room as well. Resort hotels will also serve dinner in your room, and many have a common dining room for breakfast.
Minshukus usually have a common dining room -- Japanese style, where you sit on the floor at low tables. Everyone eats at the same time, and the meals may not be as fancy. But it is traditional to serve specialty foods of the local area, and it can turn into a pretty good spread, even at a minshuku. I have had great food at a minshuku, and also some very ordinary meals. Minshukus (and some ryokans) will sometimes let you pay for just the room without meals (this is called sudomari); but you could be missing out on some local treats. If you can't stand Japanese breakfast, you may be able to get a small discount for skipping that meal at the inn.
Another service of ryokans and hotels is that the staff will come in and make up your bed in the evening, and put it away in the morning. In a minshuku, you are expected to get the futons (bedding quilts) out of the closet by yourself and put them away in the morning. As a foreigner traveling alone, however, I have sometimes had someone come in and do this for me in minshukus, without being asked.
In traditional Japanese inns, common baths, toilets, and
washing-up areas are all in separate,
if adjacent, locations. If you do not have a wash basin
(sink, called nagashi) in your room, then you will do your
morning and evening washing up (shaving, tooth brushing, etc.)
at a common area called the senmenjo. This
is an open area with long wash "troughs" and several (cold water!)
spigots. There will be mirrors, soap, and maybe some one-use
toothbrushes; bring your own hand-towel. It will be very
near the common toilet(s), but is in an open, common area.
In simple homes and simple lodging houses, the entire family
and all the guests do their daily ablutions -- elbow to elbow,
hacking, spitting, even putting on makeup -- at the
senmenjo (photo,
clickable,
right) each morning. Below is a photo of a more 'modern'
senmenjo, found on a Japanese ferry boat.
You typically do not greet your fellow guests at the
senmenjo, unless it be with a simple nod, grunt, or
informal "osu".
While the space is common, getting yourself ready to face
the world is a private activity. Those hacking,
spitting, frazzle-haired and bleary-eyed folks next to you
do not exist until they are ready to,
and they are taking no notice of you checking a pimple or
trimming your nose hairs. When you arrive at the common
dining room for breakfast, you greet each other cordially,
as if you had not previously been spattering each other with
toothpaste a few minutes earlier. In short, if you do
not have a private bathroom, you just act as if you did.
Now, if you do have a private bathroom, or a nice room
with a built-in sink and mirror (in a nicer ryokan),
then you will be deprived of
this very fascinating, very Japanese experience.
The toilet is always in a separate room from the
bathing facilities. That is why you don't ask for
"the bathroom" when you want to use the toilet.
Use the Japanese words toire (TOY-day),
or otearai (oh-tay-aRAI) for the toilet.
Unless you are staying at a Resort Hotel or pretty fancy
ryokan, where you have a private toilet facility,
you will share a common toilet (or toilets) with other
guests.
The cheaper and/or more traditional the lodging, the greater the probability
that these facilities will have "Asian" or "squat" toilets, with nothing
to sit on. Face the 'hump' and squat over the toilet. The space is
usually small enough to steady yourself with a hand on one or both walls,
until you get your balance perfected. Those with an inability to squat
without pain will find themselves in trouble, and may need to verify
the toilet type with nicer inns. (FYI: Those living in Japan can
buy a plastic toilet converter which sits over the top of a squat toilet
to privide a toilet seat.)
As mentioned in my section on Footwear Etiquette In Japan, there will be special wooden sandals for use exclusively inside the toilet, and they should be left there! Leave your regular slippers outside and slide into the bathroom slippers inside. Follow the link above for full details.
Most toilets you encounter will, of course, have a basin for hand washing. (If the senmen-jo is right outside the toilet, this may occassionally not be the case). But paper towels are often not provided. If you don't already have your little bath towel over your shoulder, use a handkerchief to dry your hands after washing. The Japanese always carry a handkerchief for this reason; and the accomplished patron holds the handkerchief in his/her teeth while washing, so as not to reach into a pocket with a very wet hand. See -- you learn something useful on every page, don't you!
In contrast to western societies, the Japanese at home tend to spend the least amount of time possible when eating or using the toilet, but they will spend a half hour or more in the bath. One good reason for this is that the time-honored rituals of daily bathing in Japan are rightly regarded as one of the most pleasurable parts of the day. A good long bath is one of the most treasured and inalienable rights of the Japanese. The reader is referred to my description of "Taking a Japanese Bath", below, for more details on bathing etiquette in both private and communal baths.
In a minshuku, you normally use the simply functional small bath of the family, and each room is notified in the evening when it is their turn to use the bath. There will be a knock on your door, or a call to your room telephone with the message, "o-FUro des'YO". You can bathe with your roommate if you like, it's a social occasion. Take as long as you want, they will know when you're done. A traditional ryokan may use the same system, but will usually have a nicer bath.
Better (or more modern) ryokans, and virtually all rural resort hotels will have much larger -- and usually very nice -- communal baths (separate) for both men and women. Changing rooms are provided and you share with other guests at your convenience during the evening bathing hours. Your host will usually tell you the bathing hours, as well as meal times, when you are being settled upon arrival. The hours may also be posted on the bathroom. Bathing is an evening activity, and there is usually no option to bathe in the morning. Baths are traditionally taken before eating the evening meal, but you can also bathe after dinner if you like, it is not unusual.
Couples who find themselves at an inn which provides separate communal bathing facilities often just bathe separately, but you may request the private use of one bath. As risqué as it may sound to westerners, a couple sharing a bath is really quite unremarkable in Japan; as I said, it is a social occasion. If there aren't too many other guests, the innkeeper may even suggest that you bathe together, before or after the normal bath hours, if you wish. While the men's bath is sometimes bigger and fancier, if there are few other female guests, a couple staying together may be allocated the women's bath for their private use, whether they asked for it or not. -- Yes, yes, this did happen to me, when my girlfriend and I shared a (normally very quiet) rural inn with a crew of construction workers on Oshima Hanto. Very jovial and very mud-soaked were the men, and the landlord assigned us exclusive use of the women's bath, without consultation.
Hot Springs are a very big phenomena -- and a very big business -- in Japan, as they have been for hundreds -- and hundreds -- of years! There are literally thousands and thousands of hot-spring areas, many with "resort hotels" and lesser inns attached. They run the gamut from very basic rural inns, to "quaint and cozy" getaways, through very tasteful and elegant lodgings, and on to grossly over-commercialized tourism destinations with high-rise hotel blocks. You must not miss the Japanese Hot Spring experience! (trust me on this one)
Whether you wind up at a commercial high-rise hot-spring resort booked through a travel agent, or find your own way to one of the thousand hidden jewels of hot-spring paradise in Japan, you must be able to speak the Japanese name of on-sen ('own-sen') which just means hot-water-spring. Rest assured that "on-sen" has been the mantra of hundreds of millions(!) of pilgrims to Japan's hot-spring areas.
While there are a number of out-of-the-way hot-spring pools in natural areas that you can enjoy for free, the hot-spring experience in Japan traditionally -- and, yes, thankfully -- includes an overnight stay at a cozy Japanese inn (or less-cozy resort hotel) which is built for and around the hot-springs. The ambiance, the setting -- and traditionally great meals -- at the lodging is a big part of the "on-sen" experience.
At hot-spring (
on-sen, pronounced "OWN-sen") areas
-- where "taking the waters" is one of the main objectives -- ryokans
and hotels will have sumptuous indoor baths for both men and women,
complete with changing rooms. They often have several pools --
of varying temperatures and types -- full-length windows facing the
natural setting outside, and may be lined with natural rock and
furnished with tropical plants. You can also hope to find at least
one more, open-air bath (rotemburo 
), often for mixed-sex bathing
(konyoku 
).
This will be on the grounds quite close by, but tastefully isolated
in the midst of a very natural and quiet setting.
Taking a leisurely hot soak under the stars on a cold night
is one of the special pleasures of visiting a hot-spring inn in
Japan. A little snow falling into your hot steaming bath, and a
bottle of hot sake do not detract one bit!
On a Japanese map, a hot-spring area is identified by the symbol
, which may look like a
real Japanese character, but it is not. It is just used
everywhere, including outside of hot-springs inns, and not
uncommonly outside of public bathhouses in towns and cities.
(In colloquial Japanese, this symbol is sometimes called
"Sakasa-Kurage", meaning "inverted jellyfish",
for its form.)
As for the open-air bath -- the nicest outdoor baths are simple pools made with natural rocks around a hot spring among the trees on a mountainside. Unlike at the indoor baths, changing rooms (separate for men and women) are only infrequently provided at an outdoor pool, and there are often no actual washing facilities; they are just for soaking. So if you need a wash, go to the indoor baths inside the inn first, then relax at the outdoor pools after dinner.
The smaller the inn, the more likely you'll have the outdoor bath mostly to yourself, especially later at night. Since nobody has to pay for the hot water, the outdoor baths are sometimes open all night. While mixed bathing remains unsensational in Japan, younger women are sometimes shy about showing up at the (mixed) outdoor baths. However, the number of inns that now provide separate outdoor baths for women only is definitely increasing, and is a boon to their trade. It is unusual to wear a bathing suit, but I have seen women do it rather than miss the experience. On one office trip, for example, our two female secretaries joined their (naked) male co-workers in the pool wearing bathing suits. Although 'going naked' is the norm, Japanese casually (but always) cover their private parts with a small towel when not submerged in the water.
Simpler Minshukus at a hot-spring resort area may also have very nice baths, but just as often they will give or sell you a pass to bathe at one of the nicer ryokans or resort hotels nearby; it's a nice way to enjoy a top-class hot-spring bath, while staying at a simple inn. Of course, any minshuku will always have at least a simple bath on the premises. Even if you are not staying in town, you can often go to a larger hot-spring resort hotel and pay a few dollars just to use their fancy baths; some of them open their baths by the early afternoon. The really fancy baths are tourist sites in themselves, and are open all day!
In order to call itself an "on-sen ryokan (minshuku or hotel)", the inn must be using actual hot-spring water in all the baths. In many places it must be cooled down, and in a few it never gets quite hot enough, but it should be local mineral hot-spring water, even if it's been piped in from across town. A scientific list of the mineral contents of the local waters will be posted somewhere near the bath.
This guide has some mention of only a few of the thousands
of hot spring areas you can find in Japan, including:
Sekigane On-Sen,
Kinosaki On-Sen,
Awara On-Sen,
Shirahone and Naka-no-Yu,
Hirase On-sen-go,
Ryujin On-Sen,
Kawa-yu and Yu-no-Mine On-Sens,
Koshi-no-Yu,
Sanjo-no-Yu, Kawaura and Sakiishi On-Sens,
Suizen-ji and Hakone On-Sens,
Masutomi On-Sen,
Ito On-Sen (Shikotsu),
Nobori-betsu On-sen,
So-un Kyo, Yokoma-betsu, and Tennin-kyo On-sens,
Iwao-betsu On-sen,
Rausu On-sen, Kuma-no-yu, Seseki and
Aidomari On-sens.
For specific destination information on yet more out-of-the-way hot
spring getaways in Japan, I recommend you to Robert Neff's
"Japan's
Hidden Hot Springs" (1995, Tuttle Publishing, ISBN: 0804819491),
featuring over 80 country hot-spring inns that he can personally
recommend! While you're at it, Margaret Price has a nice book on
"Classic
Japanese Inns and Country Getaways" (Kodansha, 1999,
ISBN: 4770018738 ); including over 100 inns of varying prices,
many of which are located at hot-springs! She will lead you to
many very special -- often out-of-the-way, often pricy -- inns that
you would otherwise never find. Yes, I own both of
these books (and a couple more I'm not recommending).
Finally, don't miss Jens Olsen's
Online Japanese Hot Spring Guide, mostly to free, outdoor
hot-springs that you can visit without staying at an inn.
Thank you, Jens!
In any minshuku, ryokan, or hotel in Japan, guests are provided with a light cotton robe -- usually blue and white -- called a yuKAta (right), which westerners tend to call a kimono. These are traditionally left folded up in a wooden box on the floor of the room. In really cold weather there may also be short quilted jackets, called hanten, which can be worn over the yukata. (A full-length tanzen over-garment may rarely be provided in quite cold places.) Typically, you undress and put on the yukata in your room before going to the bath, then wear it for the rest of the evening. In a communal dining room you may wear the yukata, or your street clothes, as you choose; people do both.
In fact, you can wear the yukata anytime, anywhere inside the inn, but nowadays it is considered somewhat improper to wear the yukata outside, and some places post notices to this effect. This does not apply to hot-spring resorts, where it is considered part of the experience to stroll out in the night air in your yukata, wearing the wooden clogs (geta) which are provided in the entryway of your inn in such places. In other country settings it may or may not be acceptable. Just see what everyone else is doing; clogs in the entryway are a good tip-off. It is always perfectly acceptable to go out in street clothes.
The yukata provided are never large enough for large western people,
and you will get a few snickers when it barely clears your knees (it
should reach much closer to your ankles). It is also difficult to sit
modestly in a robe that is too small. In cities you can buy larger
sized yukatas, and I usually bring my own. Tourists to Japan are
sometimes tempted to take home a hotel yukata and some of the big tourist
hotels have taken to selling them in their gift shops to prevent this
petty theft. As I said, you will find a very nice selection in yukata
shops, particularly in the Ginza section of Tokyo (or even
On-Line!)
Another item that is usually provided, especially in hot-spring areas,
is the little towel called a tenugui (tay-nuh-GUi
).
There is always a pay phone downstairs; and if you need to make a long-distance call, the owners of small inns will often fiddle the phone in some way so you can make the call without coins, and the charge is added to your bill. Minshukus and many ryokans always have local train and bus schedules, as well as local maps posted by the entry. The host is also expected to be a good source of information about what to see and do, prices, opening hours, and where to rent bicycles in the local area.
Other foreigners will follow after you, and their welcome depends upon who has come before. Etiquette at a Japanese inn is the same as at a Japanese house or public bath house. If you don't observe the most basic rules about footwear and bathing, you will cause havoc at an inn and only make things worse for the rest of us. Detailed notes on bathing and footwear etiquette are included below; don't neglect them! You virtually never (ever) wear shoes inside any lodging (or house), whether it's Western-style or not. Umbrellas, wet or dry, are always left at the entry door. It is considered common courtesy to observe the regular set meal times.
Poor eating and drinking etiquette are less likely to create problems.
I am not going to attempt to cover all aspects of dining etiquette in
Japan, but you can find such information in most Japan guidebooks and
on the internet -- such as these on: Table
Manners,Eating
Etiquette.
Many lodgings have an in-house phone in the room, via which you will be called at meal (o-shokuji) and bath (o-furo) times. Lacking a phone, someone will knock on your door to inform you. If you don't understand the few necessary words of Japanese when you are called, this can also cause confusion. Check-out time is usually by late morning, but there is never a problem with leaving your luggage while you spend the day in town.
In general, traveling around in rural Japan can be quite frustrating if you speak no Japanese at all. I have done it (in early days) and it is certainly safe and exciting, but it takes a lot of time and energy. Very few people speak any English, and most signs, train and bus schedules are printed only in Japanese. If you are only out for a three-day weekend, a few missed connections or wrong turns can dampen the experience. If it were that easy, these quaint places would be much more 'discovered' by western tourists. Novices are advised to take along a minimal Japanese speaker; it will greatly enhance everyone's experience.
If you travel to out-of-the-way places or at off-peak times, you won't ever need a reservation for lodging. There are plenty of inns that make a living by being busy only during the high season. The really obscure places, however, never seem to fill up; and should one town be completely full, someone will recommend an even smaller village down the road that is not. In the smallest villages where minshukus are just extra rooms in homes, you may find that none of them are prepared to take guests at all in the off-season. I ended up having to crash in a wayside shrine one night, so I guess that was really off the beaten track.
The really peak times to watch out for are Golden Week (nine days from the end of April), school holidays (about 16 days including the last week of March through the first week of April -- and the national High School Baseball tournament! -- it can get really booked up!), New Years (about eight days beginning at the end of December), and summer time (mid-July through August, especially week-ends).
"Golden Week" starts with April 29, a national holiday called Greenery Day, (or Green Day, "let's be good to the environment") which used to be the Emperor's (Hirohito's) Birthday. (When the last emperor died, his son decided not to break up Golden Week (gasp!) by changing the holiday to his own birthday, but gave the nod to the environment instead.) Golden Week runs through Children's Day, another national holiday, on May 5. This used to be the traditional Boys' Day (all those carp flags flying). [Later, the traditional Doll Festival on March 3 was declared to also be 'Girls' Day'; but it was never a national holiday.] Now boys and and girls are included in the Children's day holiday. In between is yet another national holiday, Constitution Memorial Day, on May 3.
This gives a stretch of at least 7 days with three national holidays! Since there is always (at least!) one weekend in there somewhere, many people take a couple of vacation days off work -- or their companies just close for a couple of days -- in between the national holidays, in order to get a good 7 to 10 day holiday, depending on if you can include two weekends! This is an unheard-of long vacation for Japanese, and most of them will be out there sightseeing!
If you have to travel during the above times, you are advised to get reservations for trains as well as lodgings. Get someone to look up the place in a Japanese guide book. The guides list numerous inns, or at least the number of the local innkeepers' association that someone can call to secure a reservation for you.
Finally, nothing is quite so frustrating as arriving in a new country
only to discover that they are having a local "bank holiday" that
day, and nothing is open. Here's a link to a list of the National
Many of the places I have mentioned are pretty quiet most of the time. But all bets are off during major holidays when 150 million Japanese demonstrate why they're some of the most avid tourists in the world. The Japanese were publishing travel guide books when America was still a colony.
I have also described a number of other interesting places in Japan that are quite popular just because they can be really pleasant -- if only they weren't so darned popular! Like visiting nice temples in Kyoto, you need to plan ahead to visit such places when they are the least crowded, even if it means braving worse weather. As a rule of thumb, the Japanese only go to the beach in July and August, when the water is almost warm enough to swim in. If you head out to a nice beach resort or off to some islands in May, June, or September, you will find them much less crowded, if not abandoned.
This section gives a few tips on locating lodgings as you "drop into" rural towns on your wonderings. If you want to plan ahead, you now have the option of a few English web sites that give you a limited selection of inns that you can reserve on-line. You will find a few listed on the Japan Travel Links section of my Japan Page. But, unless it is a high holiday weekend, you should be able to just wonder freely around the countryside, finding the odd simple lodgings that are listed at no tourism agents anywhere.
When looking for an inn on your own, you must first learn to read the characters for Minshuku and Ryokan (see above). This usually (but not always) appears somewhere on the signs, maybe in smaller characters than the name. Some very simple rural minshukus, just have a sign reading "Minshuku" and don't bother having a name (like "Rooms" or "Zimmer").
A few ryokans and hotels just end their name with 
= villa or inn),
),
In small towns and villages, you can just wander around and stop in at a minshuku or ryokan that looks nice. If it's full, or too expensive' (Whoops! That was a fancy ryokan, not a minshuku), you can ask them to call around for you to find a different place. You can actually make this a standard practice in Japan -- if you can't find a lodging agent, just wander into an inn and if they don't fit your needs, they will be happy to call around to find you an available place that fits your budget! If you already have a place in mind (or have made an actual reservation!), you can call from the station to make your own arrangements and get directions.
Lodging Agents
In larger towns and popular spots with many inns, there is often one
or more lodging agencies, usually just outside the train or bus
station. This is called a "Minshuku Kyokai"
association),),
It is a good idea to plan to be in your destination by mid-afternoon. Inns fill up, rural buses stop service early, and you need time to wash up before dinner. Arriving near or after dinnertime is considered an inconvenience to innkeepers, who shop for fresh food daily, only for the number of guests they have.
It is part of the agent's job to see that guests are distributed equitably among the various inns, and naturally they might not send you to the place that you would have chosen if you had taken the time to walk all over town looking for yourself. However, when arriving in an unknown place with all your luggage, you may be happy of this service. And if you can give them a better idea of just what you want, they will accommodate your needs. If you have read up on the town and seen a map, you may specify that you want to stay in a specific area. You can specify your price range, although prices, especially for minshukus, tend to be all about the same. If you say that you especially want very good local food, a river view, or an outdoor bath, the agent should exercise her bias toward places that she knows will please you in these regards. (Many of the agents are women.)
Even if you already know of a place that has been recommended, you can ask an agent to phone for you to see if they have room. This saves you the walk, or the phone call if your Japanese is not very good; the agent is happy to get the fee (from the inn, not from you), and the innkeeper appreciates the advance notice.
As in many small family-run inns around the world, if you arrive early in the day you may be turned away because they are not ready to deal with you. You should always ask if they will have rooms available later in the day; you can leave your bags there and come back when they are ready for you. The agent can facilitate this situation, securing you a room while telling you not to check-in until a certain time. While an innkeeper, or maid (in the innkeeper's absence), can send anyone away if they don't feel like taking them at the time, it is bad form and bad business for them to refuse a request from the agency -- they may get no more referrals that day.
If you are a foreigner in town, using lodging agents can be especially helpful. If you speak little Japanese, the agent will be sure to send you to a place that has taken foreigners in the past, and is prepared to deal with you. (Don't expect the agents to speak any English either!) Just as importantly, she will pave the way for your arrival at the inn. Even though I speak Japanese, some innkeepers are at a total loss when they find a foreigner at their doorstep, and a few may even tell you they have no rooms. This is to save both of you the embarrassments they anticipate. (Maybe they've had an uncomfortable experience with blundering foreigners.)
When I go to an agent, I will first chat for a minute to show her that I speak some Japanese, then assure her that I understand Japanese customs quite well and love Japanese food, including raw fish. When she calls the inn, she always tells them that it is a foreigner who is coming, but she goes on to reassure them on these points. When I arrive, I am met as a welcomed guest. Once when I went to a minshuku on my own, I was dumbfounded over my dinner omelet, as everyone else tucked into their sashimi plate! They just assumed that I would not eat raw fish. Be sure to make this clear, as innkeepers are very wary of problems with feeding finicky foreign guests.
Kokumin Shukusha
The KOku-min SHUku-sha is a nationally subsidized type of economy hotel, found is some rural areas. (They may be referred to as "public lodgings" in some English guide materials.) My guess is that they are placed to encourage the tourist economy in some underdeveloped areas. It's like a cross between a hotel and a minshuku. The hotels are large and architecturally uninspired, and the Japanese-style rooms are simple. Service is minimal but friendly and prices aren't much more than a minshuku. You make your own beds, bath and toilet are down the hall, and good simple meals are served in a common dining room, or sometimes brought to your room. Since it's large, the baths will also be large, and often quite nice. You won't find a Kokumin Shukusha in too many places, but when you do, it is worth considering as a good value for a reasonable price.
Private Hotels
Various private associations own and operate their own large 'resort' hotels out in the countryside, for the use of their members or employees. Some of them are for railway companies, utility companies, or city government workers. Many cities maintain hotels in interesting countryside locations, reserved for residents of that city, or only for retired people. Many are very nice resort hotels in beautiful areas, often isolated from towns. (Don't you wish your town government did this for you?!) Bonafide "members" pay very cheap rates, but in the off-season when the hotels are mostly empty, they will rent rooms to anyone, at un-subsidized prices which are still usually a very good value for what you get.
You won't always know when a hotel is private, and you may not see all
that many of them; sometimes they are hidden away from the main roads,
down little forested lanes marked only by a small sign. But if you
can see a big place in a nice rural location that looks like an
expensive resort hotel, look at the fine print on
the sign to see if it mentions some kind of workers' association or
city government. These private hotels are sometimes called Kaikans
(
,
meaning 'meeting hall' or 'association hall') and you may find these
characters on its signage. We once just dropped in to a Japan
Railways Workers' Association hotel in a beautiful mountain gorge in
Hokkaido, and they happily rented us a room (foreigner and all!).
The communal bath was huge and sumptuous -- with full-length windows
overlooking the river -- the food was excellent, and the price was no
more than at an ordinary minshuku, less than half of what a comparable
hotel would cost.
City Hotels
Please note that Minshukus and pensions will not
usually be found in cities. But you
can find some ryokans and several types of hotels, as well as the
occasional Youth Hostel. A discussion of the kinds of hotels you find
in cities is beyond the scope of this guide. If you find yourself
stopping over in a strange city, the most reasonable hotel will be a
modern "business hotel". They can be found near (very often
right in front of!) the station in any place you would call a city;
ask at the information desk in the station for a "business hotel"
-- that's "bizunesu hoteru"
)
The price of a business hotel will be about the same or possibly more than a minshuku, but without dinner; breakfast is often included. Rooms are western-style, very cramped, with pay TV, phone, and private bath (shower only). Vending machines down the hall provide drinks, snacks, and toiletries. It is a simple, clean (sterile) place to sleep, commonly used by traveling business people and such. The most expensive hotels will be "tourist" hotels, where you pay two or three times as much for all the tourist amenities, decor, and service.
The next step up for city hotels are several national chains
of "reasonable" or "bugdet" hotels, which have locations in
many cities. Their western-style hotel rooms are nicer and bigger than those in
small business hotels, but not as fancy as you might expect
in a tourist hotel. Two main chains are the TokyuSunRouteTokyo
City Hostels: Today you will find a few hostels in major cities -- Kyoto and Tokyo -- which are a bit more 'modern' than youth hostels. They are privately run, in central urban locations, and have both dorm rooms and multi-bed rooms. Aimed at travellers, they provide kitchen space, laundry facilities, lockers, and 'relatively' low prices. Check my Japan links page for current info on these City Hostels.
Jan/2003: Okay, okay -- I'm finally going to
mention Love Hotels,
)
So if your idea of a fine hotel experience is to wander around with your bags all day, then finally get to relax in your room after 10pm, then have to check out at 10am -- even if you want to stay in that city for 4 days -- then by all means, go for it! Personally, this seems quite a bit worse than a Youth Hostel, and certainly no cheaper! They serve their intended purpose quite well, and if you just want a place to crash after 10pm, they may or may not be economical (there are always a few extra "taxes" added to the price advertised), but I wouldn't want to plan a vacation around Love Hotels. Love Hotels are cleaning up their act a bit nowdays, and call themselves "Fashion Hotels" or "Couples Hotels", but you can know them by their garish pink and purple lighting, and display of prices for a "rest" (1-2 hours).
Youth Hostels
Japan has a large system (actually several regional systems) of Youth Hostels, similar to those found all over the world. They can be found in several cities, and in many isolated locations. Japan is a very expensive country and many budget-conscious travelers to Japan use Youth Hostels exclusively, enjoy them tremendously, and rave about how much fun they are. By all means, give the Youth Hostels a try as a good way to save money and meet people, but my perspective is just somewhat different.
I long ago gave up on using Japanese Youth Hostels. While a few of them are famous for being very pleasant and easy-going, the number of restrictions and regulations are just too much for me to deal with. In addition, hostels in interesting areas tend to be booked up well in advance through the national JYH reservation system and can sometimes be difficult to just drop in on. Unlike in some parts of the world where hostelers are largely foreign travelers, Youth Hostels in Japan are very popular with Japanese students, who love to travel, eat, and sleep in droves -- and they usually plan well ahead.
The rules I don't like include: Check-in at 4 pm. No one allowed in the hostel between 10am and 4pm. Doors locked at 10pm. No alcohol. No accommodation for couples, all same-sex dormitories. Everyone gets chores to do. Some hostels don't allow you to arrive by car. In addition, they are noisy and the food is usually ordinary. As I said, there are some very nice hostels (several in Hokkaido) that ignore many of these rules, but they are the exceptions; the hostel managers have a deserved reputation for being cranky despots.
Why would you put up with this when you can have a private room, beer, friendly service, and a key to the front door at a minshuku? Because a Youth Hostel costs about half as much, that's why. In the end, that is a very persuasive argument, but I find the value for money just much better at a minshuku, where you also tend to meet people over 18. However, there are some interesting isolated locations where the only lodging available (for miles) is a Youth Hostel; you'd better have your official Youth Hostel membership card and an approved sleeping sheet.
2/'03: For more information visit the
JYH English site.
They also access the International On-Line Reservation
Page for booking some (but not all) hostels. For example,
it shows only 3 of the 52 hostels in Hokkaido! Go to the JYH
"Hostels"
Page for a full listing of hostels in each area.
The main JYH business office in Tokyo is at: Suidobashi Nishiguchi
Kaikan 2-20-7, Misaki-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0006; near the
West Exit of the (Chuo-Line) Suidobashi railway station.
Temple Lodgings
A number of temples and shrines, especially those in the mountains,
provide lodging and sometimes meals. Staying in a temple is called
).
So your enjoyment of the experience will depend on how you match your expectations to the temple: do you just want a comfy place to sleep on your mountain hike, or are you looking for a tourist's weekend at a 'Buddhist retreat'?
Usually the temple itself, or its surroundings are interesting enough that you don't much care how basic the services are. Don't expect every mountain temple to provide lodging, but if you hear of, or stumble across one, it could be an interesting experience.
2/'03: Some really interesting information about visiting
and staying in Buddhist temple-retreats around Kyoto, Nara, Mt. Koya,
and Fukui is available in the new JNTO brochure
"Spiritual Tour
of Japan", a 146 Kb .PDF file. It also has
reservation numbers and several good web links, as well.
Also be sure to see Ed Jacob's ListSelectedQuirky
Mountain Huts
Yama-GOyas (mountain huts) are what make hiking in Japan different from most other places in the world. They are in areas accessible only by hiking up in the mountains, and provide shelter, warmth, bedding, and sometimes food, for weary hikers. If you plan well, you can hike through back-country mountains for days -- in the Winter -- without bringing a tent, sleeping bag, or even a stove! You can do a week-end over-nighter to the peak of a snowy mountain in the dead of winter with only a day pack! So why not bring a bottle of wine?
Yama-goyas are marked on hiking maps in several varieties. Shelters or untended huts can be just three or four walls and a roof over a wooden or concrete floor. A simple tended hut will be a small cabin with a caretaker to hand out quilts and keep the stove going. You can get all the hot tea you can drink and a cozy night's sleep next to several other hikers for a fee. If you're lucky, you can put your pot on the wood stove and cook a hot meal if you didn't bring a stove. And you can wake up to a great view from the top of a mountain range.
Some huts are tended only in season, or only on weekends and holidays, and may be locked at other times. Sometimes they just lock up the stove, wood, and quilts, and it becomes a free shelter.
A full-on yama-goya may also supply very basic meals (curry rice and instant noodles), as well as selling crackers, canned fish, cigarettes, and expensive bottles of cheap whisky. With or without food, a yama-goya at a mountain hot-spring is a real find!
Temples and larger Shrines (Mitsumine-Jinja!) located on back-country hiking trails may sometimes serve as yama-goyas. Since they are often monasteries of some kind, you can expect to buy hot meals, and maybe even get a hot bath!
Nowdays, the prices at yama-goyas have gone up, and can be nearly as much as a minshuku, for much, much poorer facilities. But, where else are you going to go?
Camp Grounds
You will come across a few camp grounds along your travels -- they are called
),
)
Camping may be as cheap as $2 to $5 per person or as much as $8-$15 per person (with your own tent). Some places rent tents, and even have "bungalows" to rent, but others do not. Some have showers and even cooking areas, while cheaper ones may have just outhouses. Many of the campgrounds are in nice forested areas, which are very sparsely (if at all) served by public buses.
In general, while camping is rapidly becoming more popular in Japan,
it is still not that common of an activity for families, yuppies, or
seniors, and is mostly done by students and serious hikers. You may
find (or be unable to locate!) some public campgrounds run by local
towns but many are in isolated locations. There are also a small number
of organized "auto-camp" grounds. In addition, there are currently six
KOA organized car-camping grounds in Japan, near Okayama,
Ikuchi Is. (cabins only), Ise, Shuzen-ji, Fukui, and Nasu.
These are open year round and typically charge ¥6,000 for
a tent and two people, plus ¥1,000 per additional person; some have
RV hook-up sites for ¥8,000, and cabins. See their
KOA Japan listing page.
If you are thinking of doing some camping out in Japan, you will also
want to visit the Japan National Tourist Orginization's
List
I've done very little (intentional) camping out in Japan, so I will
refer you to Will Ferguson who has done a lot of hitch-hiking around
Japan, strongly recommends camping out, and lists a large number
of camp grounds in his book "The
Hitchhiker's Guide to Japan" (Chas. Tutle, 1998, ISBN #0804820686).
This is a very good resource for anyone planning to travel cheaply,
or go camping, or hitch-hike in Japan. It is half
cheap travel tips and half route and destination information for
Hokkaido, Tohoku, Shikoku, and Kyushu (avoiding the more populous and
flatter areas of the country).
Unfortunately, the National Camping
Association of Japan website is in Japanese only.
UPDATE 9/2006:
They now have an English
Because of the difficulty in finding and getting to campgrounds, and their distance from cultural centers -- not to mention language barriers -- most short-term visitors will not plan a camping trip to Japan, unless they are specifically there for hiking or mountain-climbing in specific regions. It is worth noting that several people who have written about bicycle touring/camping in Japan, usually end up "free camping" (often "illegally") in city parks, river banks, etc., where they stay for only a quick overnight with no services. But for those already living in Japan, a camping trip -- especially with a car -- can be a good escape into natural areas, if you can just find the nicer campgrounds, and avoid the crowds.
Rider Houses
Rider Houses (raida-hausu, 
)
are a new kind of very informal lodging, mainly for Japanese motorcycle
riders. They have appeared in rural areas, especially in Hokkaido.
Some have rooms,
some are regular houses, some are just shacks built behind a coffee shop or
cafe; some just let riders crash on the floor of their shops after business
hours. They are very cheap, between ¥300 and ¥1000 yen, but you don't
get much in the way of services -- usually just space on the floor, and bring
your own sleeping bag. Many are off of public transport routes, so it's
mostly bikers who go there. If you are motorcycling, a Rider House is a good
way to meet other bikers and share information -- but don't expect anyone to
speak much English! If this sounds good, check out This Link
for several recent photos of Rider Houses. I cannot find any
formal listings of Rider Houses; for now, you will have to pick up this
information as you go -- there are hundreds of Rider Houses (and growing)
in Japan.
2/2003: If you enter "rider house" or
"rider's house" into an internet search engine, you will come up
with a few dozen web sites for Rider Houses in Japan (along with a few
other extraneous hits). Many have put up their web sites in the last
6 to 12 months; so more will be coming... Almost all of these sites
are in Japanese only (which is why adding the word "japan" to
your search will miss most of them!).
But the Rider Houses are not aimed at foreign tourists, of course.
If you are a biker living in Japan, you will have Japanese language
support on your browser, and will at least be able to decifer maps
and prices for these Rider Houses -- which range from free crash pads
"Be Free""Matsurino
1/2004: Another "network" of private hostels has
recently been started in Hokkaido called, ToHo -- for Tourist
House. They currently claim about 70 member lodgings,
including a variety of hostels, B&Bs, minshukus, and a few
Rider Houses. If you're going to spend time in Hokkaido,
it might be worth checking out at
http://www.toho.net;page
Happy Trails!
Randy's Japan Page
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