Konnichiwa FdKen-san!
I have forgotten about explanation of Ryokan.
Ryokan is written "traveling" and "mansion" in Kanji. "Ryokan" is "traveling mansion" in literal translation and means "Japanese hotel" in English.
Ryokan has a lot of Tatami room. Tatami is a traditional Japanese carpet(mat) that is made of rush. Size of Tatami mat is a 6 feet in length and 3 feet in breadth. Usually Tatami room has 8 or 10 Tatami mats. And there is low table at the center of room. The Japanese don't use a chair in Tatami room and sit down on Tatami mat directly. And the table is very low height. But Tatami floor is hard and you can sit on a floor cushion "Zabuton".
Most of all Ryokan has a bath and toilet in each room. But usually the Japanese take a bath at big common(public) bathroom in Ryokan. Common bathroom is divided into the male and female. You get undressed at a dressing room, but you must not leave an article of value at dressing room. There is a strongbox in the room and you must put an article of value into the strongbox. You has only the key of room and strongbox. Of course you should has a towel.
There is a rule to take a common bath. You must wash your body at first, and you must rinse out the soap bubbles completely. And after, you can soak in the bath. You can not use soap and shampoo in the bathtub. And you can not wash your body by towel in the bathtub. Some of foreigner wash their clothes at the common bathroom, but there's a ban on wash clothes at the bathroom. If you want to wash your clothes, you can request washing to Ryokan.
Usually you get a meal at your room. The hotel clerk carry the meal into your room and set on the table. But some of Ryokan set the table(dinner) at a dining hall.
There is not bed in the room. You use Futon when you lie down to sleep. Futon is a Japanese traditional bedclothes. Futon is made from under mat, coverlet and clean sheet. Of course there is a pillow too. You lay out the bedding on Tatami mat directly. But usually you need not lay out the bedding by yourself. Usually hotel clerk tell you about preliminary time of bed making. Hotel clerk come again when the preliminary time of bed making, and he(she) start a bed making on Tatami mat.:snore:
You can go out in the night and morning from Ryokan. A lot of Japanese enjoy shopping in the night and walk in the morning. But you must get back by curfew.
I found the site of Matunoki Ryokan in Okayama. But I don't know that this site is your staying Ryokan or not.
http://ww3.tiki.ne.jp/~matunoki/etop.html
NANGI
