Japanese Inns and Hot Springs

Japanese Inns and Hot Springs
Author: Rob Goss
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
Total Pages: 512
Release: 2017-11-14
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 1462919383

"Japanese Inns and Hot Springs takes readers on a trip around Japan, stopping at 40 of the country's best ryokan. Aiming to make your stay as pleasurable as possible, the book offers tips on travel, easy-to-follow advice on booking a stay, and a helpful etiquette guide geared toward English speakers. -- My Modern Met"

Ryokan

Ryokan
Author: Akihiko Seki
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2012-07-17
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1462908330

With over 180 color photographs and extensive commentary, this book showcases the beauty of Japanese inn, or ryokan. Featured are both old and new-from inns with a history dating back a thousand years to modern inns with the latest facilities that nonetheless capture the spirit of old Japan. Each of the properties has been handpicked by the authors for their strong design aesthetic, commitment to service and purity of their spring waters. The photographs showcase the resorts at their best and accurately express the unique architectural design of each ryokan. Each chapter begins by introducing the area surrounding the inns and their spas, or onsen, and provides a background of its local history, culture and traditions, as well as the natural environment. The text provides information on the design and development of each ryokan, and descriptions of the owners and their clientele. For those planning a visit to an onsen, this book provides contact details and information on the number of rooms, type of facilities and food, as well as vital information on travel and booking procedures and whether English is spoken. For those fascinated by Japanese culture and design, this book is an absolute delight.

Japan's Hidden Hot Springs

Japan's Hidden Hot Springs
Author: Robert Neff
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
Total Pages: 177
Release: 2011-12-20
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 1462902936

Complete with maps and extensive advice, this guide to Japan's hot springs is an invaluable resource for anyone travelling to Japan. Easier to get to than many might imagine, Japan's hidden hot springs are among the few remaining repositories of ancient Japanese ambiance and sensibility. Bucolic and charming, they bear little resemblance to the sterile, clinic-like spas of the West or to the concrete jungles of Japan's best-known onsen towns. The hot springs introduced here belong to another time but they are disappearing fast. Discover them before it's too late through this selective, personalized, and authoritative guide. In this spa guide are unbelievable gems that you would otherwise never, ever, find by yourself. Japanese people are often shocked that you found such a place. It's a very concise collection of the "true and traditional" Japanese onsen ryokan. It is for anyone who seeks a traditional experience of what onsen used to be before modernization set in.

Onsen of Japan

Onsen of Japan
Author: Steve Wide
Publisher: Hardie Grant Publishing
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2018-07-01
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 1743585497

Discard both your clothes and daily cares and enjoy a time-honoured bathing ritual with Onsen of Japan. For thousands of years, Japanese hot springs (or onsen) have been revered for their relaxing and healing qualities, and this guidebook highlights 140 of the very best places for tourists to visit around the country. Onsen experiences include super sento (large bathing and relaxation centres), local bathhouses, ultra-chic spas, forest retreats and whole towns dedicated to onsen. The how-to guide will help you navigate the complex etiquette and customs of communal bathing, and easy checklists let you know what each onsen offers and whether tattoos are accepted. One thing is for sure, taking a bath will never be the same again.

Ryokan

Ryokan
Author: Chris McMorran
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2023-01-31
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780824892272

Amid the decline of many of Japan’s rural communities, the hot springs village resort of Kurokawa Onsen is a rare, bright spot. Its two dozen traditional inns, or ryokan, draw nearly a million tourists a year eager to admire its landscape, experience its hospitality, and soak in its hot springs. As a result, these ryokan have enticed village youth to return home to take over successful family businesses and revive the community. Chris McMorran spent nearly two decades researching ryokan in Kurokawa, including a full year of welcoming guests, carrying luggage, scrubbing baths, cleaning rooms, washing dishes, and talking with co-workers and owners about their jobs, relationships, concerns, and aspirations. He presents the realities of ryokan work—celebrated, messy, ignored, exploitative, and liberating—and introduces the people who keep the inns running by making guests feel at home. McMorran explores how Kurokawa’s ryokan mobilize hospitality to create a rural escape from the globalized dimensions of everyday life in urban Japan. Ryokan do this by fusing a romanticized notion of the countryside with an enduring notion of the hospitable woman embodied by nakai, the hired female staff who welcome guests, serve meals, and clean rooms. These women are the face of the ryokan. But hospitality often hides a harsh reality. McMorran found numerous nakai in their 50s, 60s, and 70s who escaped violent or unhappy marriages by finding employment in ryokan. Yet, despite years of experience, nakai remain socially and economically vulnerable. Through this intimate and inventive ethnography of a year in a ryokan, McMorran highlights the importance of both the generational work of ryokan owners and the daily work of their employees, while emphasizing the gulf between them. With its focus on small, family-owned businesses and a mobile, vulnerable workforce, Ryokan makes an invaluable contribution to scholarship on the Japanese workplace. It also will interest students and scholars in geography, mobility studies, and women’s studies and anyone who has ever stayed at a ryokan and is curious about the work that takes place behind the scenes.

Japanese Spa

Japanese Spa
Author: Akihiko Seki
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
Total Pages: 178
Release: 2005-06-15
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 1462916910

With over 180 color photographs and extensive commentary, this book showcases the beauty of Japanese inn, or ryokan. Featured are both old and new-from inns with a history dating back a thousand years to modern inns with the latest facilities that nonetheless capture the spirit of old Japan. Each of the properties has been handpicked by the authors for their strong design aesthetic, commitment to service and purity of their spring waters. The photographs showcase the resorts at their best and accurately express the unique architectural design of each ryokan. Each chapter begins by introducing the area surrounding the inns and their spas, or onsen, and provides a background of its local history, culture and traditions, as well as the natural environment. The text provides information on the design and development of each ryokan, and descriptions of the owners and their clientele. For those planning a visit to an onsen, this book provides contact details and information on the number of rooms, type of facilities and food, as well as vital information on travel and booking procedures and whether English is spoken. For those fascinated by Japanese culture and design, this book is an absolute delight.

Ryokan

Ryokan
Author: Gabriele Fahr-Becker
Publisher: Konemann
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2008-02
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9780841600928

Japan Traveler's Companion

Japan Traveler's Companion
Author: Rob Goss
Publisher: Tuttle Publishing
Total Pages: 521
Release: 2017-11-14
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 1462919634

Japan mesmerizes and bewilders the visitor in equal measure, making a top-notch travel guide essential for anyone planning a trip to the land of the rising sun. Rob Goss is an award-winning Japan travel writer who has lived in the country for years. From fast-paced Tokyo to the serene temples and gardens of Kyoto to the booming winter resort of Niseko, Goss shows visitors where to experience the country's rich culinary traditions, pop culture, Samurai heritage, and so much more. Delving beyond the scope of traditional guidebooks, Japan Traveler's Companion showcases the insider's Japan, offering detailed itineraries for each region as well as: Information on the country's 100 most important tourist sights, including 22 UNESCO World Heritage Sites Illustrated introductions to Japanese cuisine, popular culture, and Samurai history A map of each region with suggested walks Tips for getting off the beaten path and finding Japan's lesser-known treasures, such as the contemporary "art island" of Naoshim and Yakushima's breathtaking flora and fauna Engagingly written and richly illustrated with hundreds of color photos, this Japan travel guide is the one book visitors will keep by their side before, during, and long after they complete their journey.

The Japanese Bath

The Japanese Bath
Author: Bruce Smith
Publisher: Gibbs Smith
Total Pages: 99
Release: 2001-03-12
Genre: House & Home
ISBN: 1423619293

In the West, a bath is a place one goes to cleanse the body. In Japan, one goes there to cleanse the soul. Bathing in Japan is about much more than cleanliness: it is about family and community. It is about being alone and contemplative, time to watch the moon rise above the garden. Along with sixty full-color illustrations of the light and airy baths themselves, The Japanese Bath, delves into the aesthetic of bathing Japanese style and the innate beauty of the steps surrounding the process. The authors explain how to create a Japanese bath in your own home. A Zen meditation, the Japanese bath, indeed, cleanses the soul, and one emerges refreshed, renewed, and serene.