Ryokan

In Nagasaki, I decided to stay in a traditional Japanese Ryokan. Following the recommendation in the Lonely Planet, I booked a Japanese-style room in a Ryokan called Nishikiso Bekkan.

So, what exactly does Japanese-style room mean?
First off, as with any accommodation in Japan, you remove your shoes right at the entrance of the Ryokan and leave them there. There are guest slippers available, but you can also walk around in socks (I don't know if this really is acceptable, but at least nobody complained so far).
If you wear slippers, you remove them in the tiny antechamber to your room. The floor in the room is completely covered with tatami mats. There is a low table and a chair without legs (see image below), another table with two comfy chairs, a TV, and... no bed. As the lady explains to me, she will make the bed later in the evening.

Chair minus the legs

I received an ensuite room (although I'm pretty sure I neither booked nor paid for this...), so there also is a tiny bathroom off the main room. A pair of sliding doors reveals the storage cupboard with a stash of bedding materials.

The storage cupboard is hidden behind the sliding doors on the right, the door in the middle leads to the bathroom

There was the option of having dinner in the Ryokan on the first evening, and of course I wanted to try that. I had expected that there would be a common dining area for the dinner, but I was wrong: dinner was served in the privacy of my own room! As I seated myself at the low table, the lady brought in three trays with a variety of foods. I had forgotten to mention my soy intolerance, so Miso soup and a variety of soy-based sauces were there. I didn't eat the Miso, but used all of the available sauces - and to my surprise, I didn't pay for that indulgence with stomach aches! So sauces of any kind seem to be fine, which is very good news to me. The food was every bit as varied and delicious as it looked:

After dinner, I went out again to find some Internet - one of the drawbacks of this Ryokan is that there is no Internet available - and when I came back, the lady had prepared my bed:

A propos Internet: I had looked forward to five blissful days without the constant urge to check email or facebook, without the need to follow the day-to-day news, without chatting, without wasting time surfing the net. I was about four hours into these five days when I heard about the earthquake. About ten hours in, someone made me realize the extent of the earthquake/tsunami, and it began to dawn on me that there would be no blissful Internet-free time this time. So I've been checking the news, writing emails, facebook messages and blog posts to assure everybody that I was indeed safe, and trying not to worry too much about the nuclear situation at Fukushima. Well, I sure do hope that my vacation in Okinawa in two weeks will be more peaceful.

But - back to the Ryokan. The staff was really helpful, providing me with a map of the surroundings, and answering all my questions about restaurants, sights, Internet cafes, and mobile phone shops (for people who forget their charger at home... they recharge phones for free at mobile phone shops - and they even gave me a free package of instant Ramen noodles when I picked my phone up again).

Staying at a Ryokan has definitely been an interesting experience - one I wouldn't want to miss - and Nishikiso Bekkan is a really nice place. But all in all, I very much prefer a dorm room in a hostel to any kind of hotel accommodation. The additional privacy offered by a hotel room just can't compete against the kitchen and communal areas in a hostel. In addition, the chance to meet fellow travellers in a hostel is really invaluable. And it's cheaper, too.