New in paperback. Hardcover was published in 2022. Chris McMorran spent nearly two decades researching ryokan in Kurokawa, including a full year of welcoming guests, carrying luggage, scrubbing baths, cleaning rooms, washing dishes, and talking with co-workers and owners about their jobs, relationships, concerns, and aspirations. He presents the realities of ryokan work - celebrated, messy, ignored, exploitative, and liberating - and introduces the people who keep the inns running by making guests feel at home.