No ryokan

I did a thorough internet search — or at least I think it was a thorough internet search — and I discovered that there are no ryokans in New York City.

I am surprised by this. The Big Apple generally never misses an opportunity, and yet it somehow is not exploiting this potential gold mine. Imagine the harried businessperson whose day is filled with meetings, appointments, things to do and people to meet. What could be better than the knowledge that one could retreat into a perfect oasis, a refuge of zen-like calm, casting off the shackles of modernity, for at least an evening, and partake of a timeless sense of peace?

I wonder whether some enterprising hotelier, upon reading this, will think “Aha!, that’s just the thing!”

After all, when I told a friend that I went to a Ninja themed restaurant here in Tokyo, she pointed out to me that there is also a Nina themed restaurant in New York City.

If our fair city can manage a Ninja themed restaurant, the least it could do is provide at least one ryokan for the weary traveler.

5 thoughts on “No ryokan”

  1. Ooh, that’s brilliant! I wonder what other great restaurant themes we can come up with, just by changing one letter. What’s next? Maybe Plant Hollywood (where Brad and Angelina go for veggie dining), Johnny Rickets (which serves only food without calcium or vitamin D), or the Hard Roc Cafe (where all the wait staff dress as well muscled mythical beasts) or .

  2. I’m not surprised at your surprise. New Yorkers always think that New York has everything good in the world that you could ever want 😉 (Or so my diehard New Yorker father used to tell me.)

    Not a ryokan, but for a mere $1000/night or so, there’s aways this: http://www.kitano.com/Rooms-Suites/Tatami-Suite2.

    As for restaurant themes, how about The Prussian Tea Room (where you can stop in for a light snack of bratwurst and spätzle after the Wagner recital at nearby Carnegie Hall). Or the Russian Tee Room (where you can celebrate with blini and caviar after getting a hole-in-one at one of Manhattan’s fine golf courses). [Based on my thorough internet search there is at least one golf course in Manhattan if you count Randall’s Island…so I guess my father was right. :-)]

  3. Then there’s Skatz’s Deli (site of that famous scene in When Louie Met Ella where Ella demonstrates how she fakes the words she’s forgotten to Mack the Knife by issuing a series of strange sounds).

  4. It’s so strange that one pays $1000 per night to simulate a Ryokan in NYC. One of the charming features of Ryokans in Japan is that they actually cost less than a standard hotel room.

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