Staying in a Ryoken was an interesting experience. It was a great break for me from staying in the hostels up until this point. I’d managed to get a good deal on booking.com for about 8000 yen for the night. The Ryoken’s are a traditional inn decorated in the historic fashion. When I arrived, I was presented with a Kimono and also a pass for the local Onsens (hot spas) was also included; usually costing about 1200 yen. I stayed at the Kawaguchiya Honkan Ryoken and the staff were very pleasant.
When I got up to my room, there was traditional Japanese tea and a Warabimochi cake which I sat and enjoyed at the low down table and chair. The room was really nicely decorated with sliding paper doors and also the lights in the ceiling covered.
In the evening they came in and made up a futon bead on the floor. The pillow was very strange and seemed to be filled with beans or similar. Whilst the futon was padded, it was still quite a hard bed.
Overall this was an experience that it felt you needed to do in Japan, the only thing to be aware of is that it isn’t the most comfortable of rooms especially for westerners not used to sitting cross legged all the time.