Website provides info on ryokan

I'd hate to spend all that money, get on a helicopter, take a tour during the day with the english speaking tour guide, and then get kicked out of the rotenburo because I got ink on me.

you gotta love ryokan morning schedules, maintained in strict military precision: skinny dipping from 0400, natto breakfast at 0700, and get the heck out of here by 1000...

The Ryokans near me wrap up breakfast around 9am. I mean seriously, who wants to go on holiday to have to wake up by 8.30 at the latest?

I mean seriously, who wants to go on holiday to have to wake up by 8.30 at the latest?

Different stroke for different folks, I suppose. On a day off at home I'm happy to lie in bed till lunch or whenever one of the critters demands attention. Away from home and I'm up at the crack of dawn (sometimes earlier - the sun coming up over the bay on Miyakojima was quite something) without any alarm or critters to wake me. Only 24 hours in each vacation day, can't waste them lying around in bed. I can do that at home.

...a perfect vacation involves extravagant accommodation with a helicopter shuttle service....

Good lordy no! Adequate accommodation is fine, average food (so long as it's vegetarian) is fine. Not going up in the air in a contraption, if possible, is great. What makes a perfect holiday is favourable weather, sparkling blue-green seas, a coral reef and a like-minded companion.

Very nicely done website, indeed, but prices are still given for at least 2 persons occupancy and it is funny that in category “ small luxury hotels” peninsula and park hayatt Tokyo are mentioned

"If your idea of a perfect vacation involves extravagant accomodation with a helicopter shuttle service"

It doesn't.

"get the heck out by 10:00"

Why not? You just gonna sleep all day? Ha ha ha!

There's nothing better than going for an early breakfast at the noodle shop around the corner from my regular hotel in Tokyo, wearing jeans and sneakers, and rubbing shoulders with salarymen in suits who have nothing but the office to look forward to that day. ;-)

I love getting started early in the day when I'm on vacation. I can sleep when I get home.

I love getting started early in the day when I'm on vacation. I can sleep when I get home.

I sleep at the office. (When in Rome...)

Why not? You just gonna sleep all day? Ha ha ha!

If I am paying for it, why not!? Lolling around on a futon in a beautiful ryokan is one of the world's great pleasures; a holiday in itself. Being dragged out of bed excessively early, possibly with a hangover, to a buffet of a beer, natto and salted fish guts is not.

A stay at a ryokan means yeilding to prescribed schedules and giving up on spontaneity. Futons are put down at a certain time, meals are served a certain time of day in your room, and the nightly menu is decided by the inn, baths are recommended at certain hours, breakfasts are served in your room at a set time. It is problematic for people with jetlag who want to collapse for a few hours in a darkened room in the middle of the day. That's forbidden in ryokans. It's also not what people who like western breakfasts will enjoy. I recommend a ryokan for one night at most - just for the ambiance and the architecture, but I think as a rule they are impractical for tourists.

Chamade: well, you are quite right about timing. Thought I didn’t feel any timing pressure from ryokan where I stayed with my japanese friends, I did feel this timing pressure coming from them. Everything was scheduled: now we are taking bath, then breakfast, then walk in the forest ( very fast, that you hardly see forest and imagine you became a shinkansen yourself), then again program etc, so this was quite stressful.