History 101
World's worst trip?
Bad choice of destination? Poor accommodations?
No amenities? Unfriendly people?
Our miserable unwilling traveler had, however, just one good thing.
An enormous stomach for the unexpected.
And so it was, he ended up making the most famous trip in human history.
Step Back in Time in Japan
Want to forget about the 21st century for a while? If so, plan some time in a Japanese ryokan, a traditional inn that preserves the keenest sense of old Japan for all to experience. To enter a ryokan is to enter a world of tatami-mat floors, gleaming wooden surfaces, flower arrangements in tokonoma alcoves, sliding wooden doors with rice-paper panels, and beautifully manicured gardens.
Many inns have their own hot springs. Slide into the hot water in an exquisite bathhouse or outdoor pool, lie back, and let your worries evaporate with the steam.
To savor the ryokan experience, you must put aside many Western assumptions. Shoes are removed at the entrance, where guests put on slippers to walk about inside. Even the slippers come off, however, before you enter your tatami-mat guest room. Guest rooms are generally minimally furnished. Bathing and toilet facilities are communal, even at some of the most expensive ryokans.
You have dinner, usually around 6 p.m., in your room. It is served at a low table at which you sit on cushions. Before dinner, the Japanese usually like to bathe, after which they don a cotton, kimono-like yukata. These are often worn outside the inn, if you decide to take an evening stroll. After dinner, a maid prepares your comfortable futon mattress on the floor.
The standard breakfast? A Japanese-style meal, though most inns can provide a Western-style breakfast upon request.
In many ryokans, little if any English is spoken, so you may need help in making a reservation. But once there, all of your needs and requests are understood.
Overnights in a Japanese ryokan, a one-of-a-kind cultural adventure, are available to our travelers who add the Kyoto and Nara extension to our Land of the Rising Sun: Japan by Land & Sea program.