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Rating: 
Summary: An interesting "guide" book.
Review: As one who visits Japan on a very strict budget, I found it enthralling to find out what it would be like to stay at some of these expensive inns. So much so, I have started saving just to experience one night of extravagance. Margaret Price describes beautifully the inns food,ambience and surrounding attractions as well as suggesting places to shop, things to buy and day itineraries. As well as this there are a small number of low cost ryokan recommended. There is a very useful glossary with handy phrases for bookings etc., as many of the places have no English. Language details are pointed out in the description. The maps are quite good considering the size of the area covered on the map It is a pity that so many of the inns are well away from rail stations as for the casual traveller car transport is not a real option because of the language barrier with road signs. I think that better directions by bus from stations would improve the usefulness of the book. Overall, an enjoyable read if you like to find out what it is like on the other side of the road. An interesting alternative to a normal guide book.
Rating:
Summary: An interesting "guide" book.
Review: As one who visits Japan on a very strict budget, I found it enthralling to find out what it would be like to stay at some of these expensive inns. So much so, I have started saving just to experience one night of extravagance. Margaret Price describes beautifully the inns food,ambience and surrounding attractions as well as suggesting places to shop, things to buy and day itineraries. As well as this there are a small number of low cost ryokan recommended. There is a very useful glossary with handy phrases for bookings etc., as many of the places have no English. Language details are pointed out in the description. The maps are quite good considering the size of the area covered on the map It is a pity that so many of the inns are well away from rail stations as for the casual traveller car transport is not a real option because of the language barrier with road signs. I think that better directions by bus from stations would improve the usefulness of the book. Overall, an enjoyable read if you like to find out what it is like on the other side of the road. An interesting alternative to a normal guide book.
Rating: 
Summary: Inns are expensive but worth it!
Review: I recently splurged on staying at two of the Inns in this book and I was impressed by two things: 1. How accurately the author described the particular Inns and 2. How well the book prepared me for the overall experience.
One warning: all of the inns detailed in the book are expensive by US standards, (as it appears most traditional Inns are). Especially considering we found that it was possible to find tourist hotels for less than US$100 a night. We combined four inexpensive hotel nights in Kyoto with two nights of staying in the more expensive Inns. Because Inns include two generous meals it balenced out the $300 a night cost. Staying in the Inns made us feel we experienced the "real" Japan. It is the part of our trip we remember the most foundly.
Our Itinerary: We spent four nights at the Kyoto Miyako Westin Hotel, then took a 3 hour train trip to Gero Onsen to stay at Yunoshima-kan and then the next day went up to Takayama to stay one night at Nagase Inn, both are detailed in the book. Nagase now takes fax reservations in English and the tourist office at Gero Onsen (gero-spa@hida.co.jp) said they can help americans secure reservations at an Inn like Yunoshima-kan where they do not speak English.
I share this info because making reservations is the hardest part of planning a trip to a small traditional Inn. Once you get there it's worth it.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful book
Review: This is a beautiful book to own if you like looking at pictures of traditional architecture and dreaming about nights in Japanese Inns. I've loaned it to a few friends and they all want to go to Japan now! I bought this book shortly before a trip to Japan and called a few of the listed places. None of the places had room on such short notice: none of them volunteered to speak English, either, so it might be an adventure if your Japanese isn't good.
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