The Ryokan That Changed How I Sleep
Sleeping on a futon in Kyoto, listening to rain on a bamboo garden — some nights stay with you forever.
I have stayed in five-star hotels on six continents. I have slept in a converted monastery in Umbria and a floating bungalow in the Maldives. Nothing has come close to three nights at a small ryokan in the Higashiyama district of Kyoto.
The room was spare by Western standards: a tatami floor, a low lacquered table, a scroll painting of a mountain in winter. The futon was laid out each evening by a woman in a kimono who moved so quietly I never heard her come or go.
On the second night it rained. I lay on my futon listening to the water on the bamboo in the garden outside my window, and I understood something about stillness that I had been missing. I slept for nine hours. I have not slept that well since.
Margaret
I've been traveling the world for over 30 years and still get butterflies before every trip. This blog is my way of sharing the places that moved me, the meals that surprised me, and the hotels where I slept like a queen.
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