Experience the Authentic Japan

A ryokan is traditionally located in a beautiful environment surrounded by nature, but what mainly characterizes a ryokan is its proximity and access to hot springs. The focus is on guests' need for recovery and rest, as well as a mental purification process through scents, visual impressions, well-being, and meditation.

In Japan, traditional ryokans can be found in the countryside, along the coast, and even in major cities like Kyoto and Tokyo, throughout the country. Many of them are family businesses that have been passed down from generation to generation.

Visiting a classic ryokan is about experiencing the authentic Japan, its culture, and traditions. Here, you stay in a room with tatami mats, bathe in a hot spring, change into a cotton yukata bathrobe, and sleep on a futon mattress directly on the floor. With Japanese care and hospitality, guests are welcomed by the host, assisted with luggage to the room, and given a tour of the facility. Guests can then enjoy anything from afternoon tea to dinner served in the room.

Ryokan Hanare at Yasuragi

Ryokan Hanare, inspired by Japanese inns dating back to the time of the shoguns. Staying here is an experience and a lesson in Japanese culture as practiced for centuries.

The history of ryokan takes us back to the 17th century when Japanese rulers, the shoguns, built ryokan, Japanese inns, along the road that led between the capital (Tokyo) and the Imperial Palace in Kyoto. A ryokan is traditionally located in a beautiful environment surrounded by nature's own artworks, but what primarily characterizes a ryokan is its proximity and access to hot springs. The focus is on guests' need for recovery and rest, as well as a mental purification process through scents, visual impressions, well-being, and meditation.

You can find traditional ryokan all over Japan - in the countryside, along the coast, and even in major cities like Kyoto and Tokyo. Many of them are family businesses that have been passed down from generation to generation.

Teahouses and Zen Temples

Yasuragi has three suites in Ryokan style. Ryokan Hanare is the most genuinely Japanese of them all. Here, you experience more than just an overnight stay. It is an experience and a lesson in Japanese culture as practiced for centuries. Just like in Japan, Ryokan at Yasuragi is a place where you eat, sleep, bathe, and stay for visitors wishing to leave everyday life behind and experience seclusion in a simple yet exclusive environment. Guests are assisted by a host or hostess, Nakisan, who ensures that guests receive a little extra. If desired, all meals can be served in the suite. Individually tailored treatments can also be carried out on site. Or why not have a personalized qi gong or yoga session in this tranquil environment?

For the architecture of Ryokan Hanare, Kastrup Sjunnesson Architects, who have previously designed the lunch restaurant, the entrance with the new connecting passage, the karaoke room, the reception, and the new shop at Yasuragi, are responsible. Both Ulla Kastrup and Björn Sunnesson have spent many years in Japan studying Zen gardens, tea culture, and architecture.

-Our task was to create the same feeling as in a Japanese ryokan, where the architecture is inspired by Japanese teahouses, gardens, and Zen temples. We have been inspired by the four traditional elements of a tea ceremony - tranquility, harmony, purity, and respect, says Ulla Kastrup.

A Close-to-the-Floor Experience

Ryokan Hanare is almost 130 square meters and consists of two bedrooms, a larger "living room," and a private bathing area with sauna and hot spring both outside and inside. Stepping in here is like entering another world, the Japanese world. A Japanese room gains its significance only when you enter it and experience it with your entire human form, according to Ulla Kastrup. The first thing you encounter, after changing your outer shoes for soft slippers, is the small Japanese stone garden symbolizing a traditional Japanese inner courtyard surrounded by an open veranda.

We played with the idea and created an inner courtyard consisting of seven - which is a symbol-charged number - birch trunks and five large stones. Then we marked the difference between indoors and outdoors with bamboo blinds. So, we pretend it's outdoors. The blinds frame the garden and screen off the light, describes Kastrup.

The inner veranda, in turn, leads to the different rooms and links the sections of the suite. At the center is the living room used for both dinners and conferences and sleeping. Here, there is a height-adjustable table for eight people, of course, sitting on the floor, but the design is adapted for us Westerners with a recess in the floor for the legs.

The dimensions of Ryokan Hanare are created based on the sitting human, the experience one gets when sitting close to the floor, as the Japanese do, Ulla Kastrup explains.

The colors are inspired by natural materials related to the plaster used in Japanese teahouses. The floors are covered with Japanese tatami mats woven from rice straw. In Japan, rooms are built based on the dimensions of the mats - a single mat measures 90x180 cm - and room dimensions are often specified in the number of tatami mats rather than square meters.

Yin & Yang

Inside the living room are the two bedrooms, providing sleeping space for eight people in total. According to Japanese culture, rooms should be devoid of furniture; instead, tables are brought out when needed and mattresses rolled out when it's bedtime. In Ryokan Hanare, however, sleeping quality has been ensured with fixed DUX beds in place.

The rooms lack art on the walls since Japan uses a tokonoma, a niche, where a specific artwork is displayed for a particular occasion or season, such as a flower arrangement. The architects have deliberately avoided all forms of symmetry.

-Symmetry is avoided, that's the gods' work. In our world, nothing is perfect, nothing is flawless. Just like Yin and Yang constantly strive to achieve balance, Ulla Kastrup explains.

Throughout the suite, one wall consists of large rice paper windows letting in soft daylight from the outer veranda. Otherwise, the lighting, following Japanese teahouse standards, is dim, without causing irritations. Light sources are well placed where needed.

Hot Springs with a View

What distinguishes a ryokan is access to hot springs, which naturally leads us to the bathroom. In a mix of black slate and cedar wood, guests encounter genuine Japanese bathing culture.

-Yes, here are classic wooden washbasins and stools for four people. We have also installed a shower, although it goes against tradition. Once you've washed up, step down into the hot stone tub, where several can bathe together. There is also a sauna adjacent to the bathroom, Ulla Kastrup explains.

Japan is full of hot springs, which is why ryokans are often found in the mountains. Therefore, Yasuragi has also built a hot tub on the veranda for those who want to bathe outdoors. From here, guests have a breathtaking view of their private garden and the slope down to the water with Lidingö in the horizon.

Visiting a classic ryokan is about experiencing the authentic Japan, its culture, and traditions. Here, you stay in a room with tatami floors, bathe in a hot spring, change into a yukata bathrobe, and sleep on a futon mattress directly on the floor.

So take a deep breath and let the soothing atmosphere envelop your body and soul. You can't get closer to Japan without actually traveling there.