Guide
Ryokan and onsen: what really happens there
This is the category that confuses travellers most, and with good reason. The price looks crazy until you understand what it includes, a whole evening runs on a fixed timetable, and the bath itself comes with rules that nobody explains. Here is everything, in order.
The first thing to know
The price is per person, not per room, and it includes dinner and breakfast.
A ryokan at ¥44,660 looks three times the price of a hotel, until you work out that it includes two meals. The median in Japan is about ¥44,660 per person per night, roughly $283. A couple for one night: about $566, including a ten-course kaiseki.
What it costs, in ranges
| Level | Per person per night | In dollars | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bath only | 0 to 1,500 yen | up to 10 | Free foot baths, or day entry without a stay |
| Basic | 15,000 to 25,000 | 95 to 160 | A tatami room, a shared bath, two meals |
| Mid-range | 30,000 to 45,000 | 190 to 285 | A well-known ryokan, serious kaiseki, usually a private bath for a fee |
| High | 50,000 and up | 315 and up | A room with a private onsen bath, personal service |
The cheapest on our list starts at ¥400 per person. Peak season, weekends and crab season in Kinosaki raise prices considerably.
The evening runs on a clock
This is the second surprise. A ryokan is not a hotel that you walk into whenever you like. Check-in is usually from 15:00, dinner is served at a fixed time that is set at check-in, usually 18:00 or 18:30, and breakfast is at a fixed time too, usually 07:30 or 08:00. Check-out is early, usually 10:00 or 11:00.
What this means in practice: do not plan an evening out. You arrive in the afternoon, bathe, put on a yukata, eat, bathe again, sleep. The ryokan is the evening, not a place you sleep in after the evening.
The bath, five rules
- 1. Leave everything outside
Clothes go in the basket in the changing room. You do not enter in a swimsuit, and this is not open to interpretation.
- 2. Wash first, sitting down
A row of taps with a stool and a hand shower. Soap up, rinse well, and only then get into the water.
- 3. The small towel does not go in the water
Put it folded on your head or on the edge of the bath.
- 4. Hair tied up
Up, out of the water. Bring a hair tie with you.
- 5. No swimming and no splashing
This is not a pool. Sit, lean back, stay quiet.
If you will not bathe with strangers
The shared bath is fully nude and separated by gender. For some travellers that does not work, for religious reasons or simply for comfort, and there is no need to give up on onsen because of it. Four ways, from the cheapest to the most expensive:
- A private bath for rent
Kashikiri. Book it at reception, usually 45 minutes for 2,000 to 4,000 yen. Almost every ryokan has one, and it is the cheap solution.
- A room with its own bath
Marked 露天風呂付き客室. It adds 8,000 to 20,000 yen per person, and solves the matter completely.
- Mixed baths with a robe
At Takaragawa and at some outdoor baths you wear a bathing yukata that is provided on site.
- A day bath only
Many ryokan sell entry to the bath without a stay, from 1,000 yen. You can test the idea before committing to a night.
Tattoos
The historic ban comes from the link with organised crime, and it is still enforced in many places. The situation in practice in 2026: small rural ryokan usually do not check, large complexes and city hotels do. The safe solution is a private bath, where nobody sees and nobody asks.For a small tattoo there is a cover sticker (tattoo cover seal), sold at Don Quijote for about 500 yen.
Kaiseki, kosher and vegetarian
Dinner is kaiseki: eight to twelve small seasonal courses, and it takes an hour and a half to two hours. The base of almost everything is dashi, a stock of seaweed and dried fish flakes, also in dishes that look completely vegetarian.
You must say so when you book, not when you arrive. A ryokan orders ingredients by the number of guests days ahead, and at check-in there is nothing left to change. Write it explicitly in the booking email: no fish, no dashi, no meat. Many ryokan can prepare a shojin ryori menu, a fully vegetarian Buddhist kaiseki, if you ask in advance. The full guide to kosher and vegan includes the wording in Japanese.
Yukata, shoes and common mistakes
- You wear shoes only as far as the entrance. On tatami you walk barefoot or in socks, never in slippers.
- The yukata closes left over right. Right over left is reserved for the dead, and it is a mistake people spot at once.
- You wear the yukata at dinner and also in the street in onsen towns. It is not pyjamas, it is the dress.
- There are separate slippers for the toilet. Leave them there, do not walk out in them.
- The futon is laid out on the tatami during dinner, without you seeing. Do not move it or fold it.
How to book
- When
A famous ryokan in peak season: half a year ahead. Ginzan in the snow and Kinosaki in crab season fill up first.
- Where
The official website is usually cheaper than the agents. Rakuten Travel and Jalan are the Japanese alternatives, with more availability than Booking.
- Travelling alone
Many ryokan do not accept a single guest at weekends, or charge almost the price of two. Worth checking before you fall in love.
- Children
Some of the luxury ryokan do not accept children under a certain age. Large onsen hotels such as Suginoi in Beppu are built exactly for them.
If you are undecided
One night in a ryokan is worth more than three. It is a concentrated experience, and on the second day it no longer surprises. The combination we recommend: one night in the middle of the trip, in a town that is on the route anyway. Hakone or Kawaguchiko on the way from Tokyo, Gero on the way to Takayama, Kinosaki from Kyoto, Noboribetsu from Sapporo.
Checked on 9 September 2026 against the official websites of the ryokan and against Japan Guide. Prices change by season, by day of the week and by room type.