Which site should you book on?
No site shows you all of Japan. Each one holds a slice of it, and a large part of the country sits outside every site you have ever heard of, waiting behind a form still written in Japanese. Once you know where the line falls, the choice takes about a minute.
Two worlds, and they complement each other
What you can book tonight
- Every hotel you are likely to need, from the station chains to the top end
- The ryokan used to foreign guests, and Trip.com lists the most of them
- Cancellation, payment and reviews you can read, with support you can reach
What takes more work
- The rest of the Japanese stock, invisible from the Western sites
- The quiet addresses: temples, mountain inns, old houses
Most trips are booked entirely from the left-hand column. The right-hand column is where some of the places your guidebook talks about have been hiding.
Depending on your case
We earn a commission on some of the links on this page. It costs you nothing extra, and it doesn't change what we recommend. Where a cheaper non-partner option exists, we show it.
Almost every ryokan that takes foreign guests is listed here, and the meal plans show up in the results rather than three clicks in. Start here. If a place you have read about is missing, that is a real signal about which world it belongs to, not a search you did wrong.
Search ryokan on Trip.comFree cancellation often runs to the day before, and you pay at the hotel. Book wide now, tighten later, pay nothing for the change.
Search on BookingOften the cheapest on Japanese city hotels. One habit to keep: read the final total at the payment screen, because the fees land at the end and the headline rate is not what leaves your account.
Search on AgodaA whole house, at the size where hotel rooms stop making sense. Airbnb has the deepest choice. Japanese law is strict about short lets, so check that the listing shows its license number. Plenty of agency-run houses also sit on Vrbo, often at the same price.
Compare on VrboPlenty of addresses exist only on the Japanese side. The two big Japanese sites, Rakuten Travel and Jalan, both run an English version, and they are the gentlest way in: check both before you decide a place cannot be booked online at all. Past that you are booking direct, often in Japanese, through a local form and sometimes an email or a phone call, which is also the one channel where nobody takes a commission, us included.
See it on Rakuten TravelThe calendar may not have opened
Inns open about 6 months out, train seats 1 month out. Before that, an empty search is not a full house.
When sales open →Your month sets the rest
Pick your month. We tell you when to book, what to book first, and the dates to avoid.
Pick my month →What you are actually buying
A ryokan rate counts people, not rooms. The four types of Japanese bed, and what each one includes.
Read the four types →Tanuki Trip never books and never takes payment on your behalf. You book it yourself, wherever you want.