A tour of Japan really wouldn't be complete without sampling the traditional Japanese way of life by staying in a ryokan (pronounced ree-ok-an). This is a traditional Japanese-style Inn which is very popular with the Japanese as this is where they come to unwind from their high-pressure lifestyle. From what we had read about them, this would definitely be quite an experience and one which we had wanted to include in our tour ever since the earliest planning stages - even though we had absolutely no idea how to arrange it!

Luckily, some of the package tours included a stay in a ryokan, so we were able to pick up some ideas for locations from them. We chose Takayama, a traditional old town tucked away in the Japanese Alps, as it was a popular choice with the package tours and was also highly recommended by our guide book. We then chose a suitable ryokan with a lot of help from Mike Harris at KR Tours.

All of the other hotels we stayed in during our tour were Western style and, if it hadn't been for their hi-tech toilets, they could have been just about anywhere in the world. The ryokan, however, was unique to Japan - and very different!

Our experience started the moment we arrived. We were welcomed at the door with excessive amounts of bowing and then a gong was sounded to announce our arrival. We were introduced to our maid who took us to our room. Our progress was relatively slow as the kimono she was wearing only allowed her to shuffle along with very small steps. She didn't speak any English, which made the next two days somewhat of a challenge for us as she made up for this by speaking even more in Japanese. To be fair, though, we didn't have that much trouble understanding the gist of things and it certainly added to the overall experience.

Our traditional Japanese room in the ryokan. When we arrived we were served some Japanese green tea, a strange green doughy sweet and some pickled vegetables while we were sat at this low table . Next to each legless chair you can see our yukata robes and the toiletries that we had been given for the communal bath.

Our room was quite simple - inside the door was an entrance hall with a polished wooden floor which was partitioned off from the main room by a traditional Japanese sliding paper screen door. Inside the main room, there was a low table in the centre with two legless chairs, the floor was covered with soft tatami reed mats and there was no bed to be seen anywhere. The main feature of the room was supposed to be its ornamental alcove (or Tokonoma), which was sparsely decorated by a hanging scroll and some fresh flowers. Some more sliding paper screen doors led out onto a balcony which overlooked an ornamental bridge over a river with a backdrop of snow capped mountains.

This traditional Japanese room had, unfortunately, not escaped from all of the hi-tech wizardry that Japan is famous for as it contained a TV set, an electronic key code safe, the most advanced mini-bar we have ever seen (electronically linked directly to our bill), air-conditioning with an electronic control panel and the most advanced toilet of our tour.

Customs
There are some important customs that you need to be aware of when staying in a ryokan. The most important rules seem to be regarding footwear. You should normally remove your shoes before entering a ryokan. You will be given some slippers to wear whilst inside but these must be taken off when you enter your room! Inside your room you wear special tabi socks which are like mittens for feet - they have a separate big toe section which helps when wearing with their thong sandals. In addition to this, there are special slippers which are only worn when inside the toilet and we also had some sandals for wearing when outside on our balcony.

We had read all about these rules before we arrived but that didn't stop us from making several footwear faux pas throughout our stay... When we arrived, we had been allowed to keep our own shoes on until we reached our room. Our maid then gave us some slippers with an explanation in Japanese. We naturally put them on but we were immediately told off by her as we were now inside our room and they were only for wearing when we left our room (which is presumably what she said). The remainder of our mistakes were made in private and usually involved us forgetting to take off the toilet slippers.

Communal baths
One of the highlights of a ryokan (for the Japanese at least) is the communal bath. This is possibly because their baths at home are very small but we'd also read that the Japanese are able to communicate better when they are stretching out naked together in a large, piping hot bath! Some ryokans (the more expensive ones which are called onsen) are located near hot, volcanic springs which they use in their baths for therapeutic purposes.

Most ryokans (including ours) have separate baths for men and women but the signs identifying them are only in Japanese. Luckily, Lina knew which was which (although the symbols were in our guide book if she hadn't). The first thing we noticed was that, although the sexes were separated, the baths were not particularly private. The entrances were only covered by a half-height curtain which would only really obscure the head and shoulders of anybody changing inside and so it would probably be quite obvious which entrance was which during peak periods.

The routine for using a Japanese bath is as follows:

• take off your yukata robe (and anything else you are wearing) and leave them in a basket with your towel;
• then, armed only with some soap and a small (strategically placed) hand towel, you enter the bathing area. This will usually have a massive picture window through which you can view the local scenery while you are bathing (and it can view you!);
• before you enter the bath, however, you must first rinse yourself thoroughly. This is done while sitting on a tiny stool using a small bucket and/or a low shower head - you should not stand while doing this;
• you can then join everybody else in the piping hot bath for a long soak while enjoying the scenery - but don't even think of washing yourself yet as soap is strictly not allowed in a Japanese bath!;
• before you pass out from the heat, you should get out of the bath and return to the stool where you can finally wash yourself with soap - but remember not to stand up while washing;
• after rinsing thoroughly, you return for another soak in the bath;
• when you've had enough, you return to the dressing room to dry off and get back into your yukata.

The Japanese traditionally bathe just before their dinner but we were too busy exploring this new town so we didn't try out this bathing ritual until after we had eaten (which meant that we had these communal baths to ourselves!) Our room did actually have its own bathroom and this seemed to mimic the style of the communal baths - the shower head was placed low on the wall to the side of the bath and a small stool was provided so that you could wash before getting into the short but extremely deep bath for a soak.

Traditional Meals in a Ryokan
Like in America, the majority of Japanese hotel rooms are provided on a room-only basis. However, most ryokans provide their rooms on a half-board basis as their traditional meals are an important part of staying in a ryokan. These meals will almost certainly be Japanese with a set menu and probably feature some local specialities.

Just a few of the countless (and mostly unknown) dishes that we were served for dinner in our room.

Our dinner was served to us in our room by our maid while we were sat either side of the low table on the legless chairs. She arranged several small dishes in front of us explaining in detail what each of them was - but unfortunately in Japanese! She did, however, do a good job of demonstrating how some of the dishes should be eaten - but only when it wasn't obvious!

Our meals in Japan were generally on the small side so we thought that maybe these few dishes were all that we were going to be given. However, as soon as we had finished them, our maid cleared them away and replaced them with another selection. This happened again and again until we lost count and we certainly didn't go hungry.

We spent two nights in this ryokan and, despite serving so many different dishes during our first meal, they didn't duplicate any of them the following day and so we sampled quite a wide variety of traditional Japanese food during our stay. We recognised some of these dishes (like sushi, sashimi, miso soup, noodles, yakitori) and we could identify what some of the others were made of (like beef, grilled fish, mushrooms, tofu) but some of the dishes were totally unknown to us. We actually thought that one of them was snail but we were told after writing this that the Japanese don't eat snails and it was probably Sazae - a shell fish that looked to us like a snail - thanks to Satomi for pointing our mistake out to us.

We are both pretty adventurous with food so we ate everything that we were given. Some of it was delicious, most of it was OK but some bits weren't particularly nice. However, the overall presentation of the food, both in their individual dishes and on the table, was excellent. We probably surprised our maid as we expect that most of her foreign visitors aren't quite so adventurous with food.

Breakfast in the ryokan was in a communal banqueting hall but we were still served by our maid. We sat at low tables again but this time on cushions instead of legless chairs. We were expecting Japanese food for breakfast but what we were given looked more like our evening meal. In fact the biggest difference was that all of the dishes were laid out on the table together instead of being served in many courses.

Bedtime
We had noticed that there wasn't a bed in our room when we arrived. The Japanese don't traditionally dedicate any of their valuable floor space to a permanent bed. Instead they keep futon beds folded up in a cupboard to be laid out on the floor each night. Shortly after we'd finished our dinner, two women entered our room, removed the low table and the legless chairs and then, with practised, military precision, they ceremoniously laid out two futon mattresses on the floor and topped each of them with a thick quilt. We had been given thinner yukata robes to wear while sleeping.

Despite being located in the ancient Hida district of the Japanese Alps and being surrounded by snow capped mountains, Takayama is remarkably easy to get to by train. Although it isn't serviced by the famous bullet trains, there are regular express trains that plod along a scenic route up the mountains from the mainline station at Nagoya.

Takayama is supposed to be a traditional Japanese town but unfortunately it has been tainted by technology with the worst being around the station - which is what you see first when arriving by train. However, it has still managed to maintain a central area of quaint old-fashioned streets. It also has rather a lot of old Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines which have been linked together by a well marked walk. Something else that Takayama isn't short of is hairdressers - there seemed to be at least one on every street and they were always in use! They must take a lot of pride in their hair.

A short bus ride out of Takayama takes you to the main attraction of the area: the Hida Folk Village. This is an open air museum of traditional houses from the local area that have been preserved to show how people lived in the mountains as little as 50 years ago. There are also demonstrations of traditional arts and crafts taking place around this village.

A stay in a ryokan is definitely an experience which we would recommend to anybody planning a trip to Japan. However, you do need to be willing to experiment with Japanese food to get the most out of your stay or you might go hungry!

Even though many of the organised tours from the UK include a stay in a Ryokan, it definitely felt like it was off the tourist trail - for foreign visitors at least (we'd noticed, when we were checking-in, that ours was the only Western name on the guest list).

Takayama was a good setting for a two-night stay in a ryokan but a smaller village might be better for one night. However, our ryokan (the Honjin Hiranoya Bekkan) wasn't quite what we had in mind when we were booking it. We were specifically after something that was traditional looking throughout so we were a little disappointed when we first arrived as it looked just like an ordinary hotel - that is until we reached our room!

For an alternative, light-hearted view of a stay in a Ryokan read chapter 9 in Dave Barry Does Japan.