"The Horai's sixteen sukiya-style guest rooms each comprise a 12-mat room and an 8-mat room, and a cypress bath. Do not forgo the big bath experience at the Horai, though. Put on your yukata and geta and totter down the long, steep lantern-lit path to the Hashiri-yu. This is the ultimate Horai experience: its big wooden tub is protected from rain by a wide-eaved roof but it is open to an exhilarating view of Sagami Bay. It is a special luxury to soak here in the mornings, watching the play of distant boats or, at nights, their flickering lights.

"The food at the Hotai is understated and perfect..."

To me, this is irresistable. I find it hard to explain to myself why after 23 years in Japan I have never visited Horai or indeed why I have gotten around to visiting so few of Japan's great inns. This book will change all that for me and I suspect for many other Japan residents who have been making it a habit to fly off to Phuket or Bali to hole up in a gilded hotel for a few days when they want to break their concentration. That's crazy! After reading Ms.Price's book, I can see that these inns are nothing less than national treasures.

It has taken Margaret Price, an Australian who has lived in Japan for 16 years, 10 years to assemble this loving but by no means uncritical guide to 92 of Japan's best inns. She says that along the way she has collected over 70 inn guides in Japanese, but she says that Japanese commentary is too kind, too polite, and that the photographers involved tend to be less interested in taking photos which suggest what the inn is like than in taking one beautiful (if perhaps misleading) shot. Ms. Price's extremely valuable guide is sure to open the doors to this dream-like aspect of Japan to a lot of people who never quite trusted the guides available heretofore. Her book is certain to be translated into Japanese.

Yes, Ms. Price tells it like it is. About Takaragawa Onsen, the so-called grand champion of outdoor hot springs, she says: "It is accessible from Tokyo but a stay is unwarranted because the inn's new wing is unforgiveably ugly."

About Saburi, an inn run by the (multi-talented) owner all by himself: "I arrived at Sauri expecting to find a sophisticated country inn in well-tended surroundings, but found the place rather unkempt and needing, perhaps, a woman's touch."

About Hakkei-tei, Japan's oldest inn: "Spectacularly dilapidated former pleasure villa. [T]he place is creaky and falling to bits. But at the Hakkei-tei that is really half the fun."

About Tachibana: "The Tachibana claims to be an inn with high-class cusine, but I found the kaiseki meals to be average. Come here mainly for the view."

About the town of Futamigaura: "I wish I could say that Futamigaura was a charming seaside resort and the old inns worth visiting, but the town just looks sad and the inns have caught the malaise."

About Yamaguchi City: "The hot spring end of town known as Yuda Onsen looks like the worst example of urban misplanning and the accommodations are all architectural abominations."

Forthright comments such as these, and the author's complete disregard of the famous, fashionable, and expensive Hiragiya in Kyoto and her relegating of the chic Murata in Yufuin (which she notes is overrun in the summer by "trainloads of monied ladies") to a list of "Alternative Inns" inspires confidence in her judgment.

Besides, it's evident she just knows her stuff.

She knows which seaside inn harbors Japan's oldest surfboard. She knows an inn in Tokyo with strong literary connections where each room is supplied with a pencil sharpener and a large waste basket (Wakana in Kagurazaka). She knows at which country inn you can hire a geisha to pour your drinks and at which inn you might consider hiring a story teller for the evening. She tells about an inn with a laquered bath looking out on a beautiful view. She knows which inn is run by a female manager who charmed Henry Kissinger. She knows of an inn where you take a boat to the bath. She knows where the planners of the Meiji Restoration took baths while they plotted and the room Bernard Leach, the famous English potter, slept in. She can point you to an inn on a deserted island with views of the Inland Sea.

Along the way she gives short, relaxed courses in the etiquette of an inn, in how to arrange flowers, in how to drink tea, in Japanese aesthetics, in how to buy lacquerware, as these topics come up naturally in conjunction with a particular inn or area.

She knows the lay of the land, dividing Japan into 35 destinations and suggesting where to go and what to look for once there. She doesn't want you to waste your time playing tourist.

As you go through the book you'll find yourself putting a check against those inns which you must visit. The trouble is, by the end of the book the list is pretty long. I asked the author (admission: Margaret is an old friend) if she had considered assigning stars to inn, as the Michelin Guide does to restaurants. She told me that the difficulty is, some inns are wonderful with food but the bath is unimpressive and some inns have a wonderful view but the rooms are small. In this way, I suppose, those so inclined are doomed to spend their lives searching for their very own favorite inn, for whatever reason. Well, let's begin.

Reviewed by Rick Kennedy, July 1999

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