Hidden deep in the mountains of Japan’s Yamanashi Prefecture, the Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan has tatami-mat floors, kimono-clad staff, and handwritten calligraphic signs. It feels like time has stood still here, and that’s no coincidence.
Legend
Legend has it that it was the year 705 when The eldest son of Fujiwara no Kamatari, the most powerful aristocratic family of the time, was wandering the capital when he discovered a hot spring in the area.
Soon after, a ryokan, or traditional Japanese hot spring hotel, was built. For more than a millennium, guests as varied as overworked Tokyo wage earners, famous leaders like the Tokugawa (a shogun family that ruled Japan for 400 years) and even Japan’s current emperor, Naruhito, have come to immerse themselves in the waters and enjoy the bucolic landscape.
The oldest hotel in the world
The ryokan has been known for a long time in Japan. But its popularity received a major boost in 2011 when the Guinness Book of World Records designated Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan as the oldest hotel in the world.
The announcement put it on the wish list of many international travelers, and now the ryokan works to accommodate these tourists while staying true to its 1,300-year-old traditions.
From city to country
Getting to the ryokan is not easy. First, travelers traverse the bustling chaos of Shizuoka Station in the prefecture of the same name, they then board the bullet train heading towards eastern Japan.
From there, the world slowly slips away. The stations get smaller and smaller as the surrounding area becomes more rural. At some stations, there isn’t even a ticket booth in sight.
The hour-long train ride offers a full view of Mount Fuji when the sky is clear. The rice fields and old houses that still have tiled roofs resemble a scene from the Miyazaki animated film. “My neighbor Totoro.”
Travelers disembark in Minobu, a town of just 11,000, and wait for a shuttle bus provided by the ryokan.
Minobu is so small that the ticket booth at the train station only accepts cash and issues paper tickets, a stark contrast to Tokyo, where LED lights fill the city streets and people pass through train doors with the touch of their phones.
In Minobu, there are no supermarkets, nor McDonald’s. Instead, the small streets are home to local businesses that have been open for generations. From there, it’s an hour’s drive on a winding road, going deeper and deeper into the mountains, until finally the ryokan comes into view.
Staff members in traditional kimonos greet travelers and escort them to the lobby. Guests are given slippers with their names pre-written on a piece of paper next to them. Shoes are not permitted beyond this point.
“From the bathrooms to the rooms, I can feel the presence of history here”, says Michiyo Hattori, a guest who was at the ryokan to celebrate her 70th birthday.