Japan's Historic Inns & Heritage Stays

About this book

Japan has lodged its travellers for over a thousand years — and hundreds of those houses still stand, many still taking guests.

Japan's Historic Inns & Heritage Stays covers 200 traditional lodgings in one format: the inn and its building, the history and house culture behind it, what the heritage is today, and how staying and checking actually work. The world's oldest inn families of Yamanashi and Ishikawa. The honjin palaces of the Tokaido and Nakasendo. Temple lodgings on Koyasan, Haguro and the Shikoku pilgrimage. The grand hotels of Nikko, Hakone and Karuizawa. The thatched farmhouses of Shirakawa-go and the merchant houses of Kurashiki.

It is honest where other books go vague: small historic houses change their opening patterns, prices and even their survival, so instead of printing promises that will rot, every entry names the official sources — the house itself and its town — through which to confirm the current position before you travel.

Sleep inside the history of Japanese travel. It has been kept warm for you for thirteen centuries.

Written and created in Japan by Japanese author Aki Wakamatsu. Published by Takikawa TOKOTOKO Kids LLC, a Japanese publisher in Hokkaido, Japan. Authentic Japanese content, carefully made in Japan — not mass-produced.