Ryokan rules card in Japanese and English
A ryokan runs on a schedule and a set of small conventions that nobody writes down, because every Japanese guest already knows them. This card prints the eight that matter, in the order the evening actually unfolds.
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How the evening runs
Shoes off in the entrance hall and into slippers. Slippers off again before tatami. Green tea and a small sweet in your room on arrival — that is when the staff explain the bath and dinner times. Dinner at a fixed hour, in your yukata, which is completely normal. Staff lay out your futon while you are eating. Check-out is around 10:00, earlier than a city hotel.
The yukata, wrapped the right way
Left side over right, always. The other way round is how the dead are dressed for burial, and it is the mistake a Japanese guest will spot immediately and be too polite to mention. The belt ties at the waist, not the chest, and the yukata is normal dress for dinner, the corridors, the bath and even a walk around a hot-spring town in the evening.
The toilet slippers
There is a separate pair waiting inside the toilet door. Change into them, and change back on the way out. Walking down the corridor in toilet slippers is the classic foreign-guest mistake, and the one everyone notices. It is on the card because it is easy to forget and slightly embarrassing to be told.
Times you cannot move
Dinner and breakfast are cooked per guest and served at a fixed hour, so arriving late genuinely disrupts the kitchen. Check-in is usually from 15:00 and the desk expects you before dinner service. If you will be late, the hotel request card in this tool has a sentence for that, and phoning ahead is worth the awkwardness.
Printing and privacy
Eight steps sit comfortably on a business-card at 91 by 55 millimetres, ten to an A4 sheet with cut lines. A6 gives four larger cards, which is easier to read in a dim room. Nothing is uploaded: the card is assembled by JavaScript inside your own browser tab, with no server and no account involved.
Frequently asked questions
Which way does a yukata wrap?
Left side over right, so your left hand can slip into the right side of the chest. Right over left is used only when dressing the dead. Nobody will correct you, so it is worth getting right the first time — and the card carries the sentence in Japanese in case you want to check with staff.
Can I wear the yukata outside my room?
Yes — to dinner, to the bath, around the inn, and in most hot-spring towns out on the street in the evening as well, often with the matching haori jacket and wooden geta the inn lends you. It is not pyjamas; it is what the inn expects you to be wearing.
Do I have to eat dinner at the set time?
Effectively yes. Ryokan meals are multi-course and prepared per guest, so the kitchen is cooking to your slot. Some inns offer a choice of two sittings when you book. Skipping a meal you have already paid for is possible but should be said as early as you can.
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Nothing is uploaded: the card is assembled by JavaScript inside your own browser tab, with no server and no account involved.