For many visitors to Japan, staying at least one night in a traditional Japanese inn, a ryokan, is part of the experience. The guest rooms are often designed according to historical models and take you back to life in earlier Japan with their tatami floors and sliding paper doors. A futon for sleeping is also part of the basic equipment.
Just the sleeping mat always causes discussions among Japanese travelers. Should you fold the futon yourself as a guest, or do you leave it to the staff at the inn? If you move into a ryokan room, the sleeping accommodation is not rolled out. To maximize floor space for guests to use, futons are stored folded in a closet. Usually after dinner, a maid comes and lays out the mat for the guest and prepares the sleeping place.
Fold up the futon or not?
For many Japanese, it is considered good manners to tidy up a little before checking out. This ensures that used and unused towels are in the right places, or empty drink containers are placed together on the table, because in Japan plastic bottles and aluminum cans are sorted out separately from rubbish. At the futon however, opinions differsome tend to fold it up themselves, while others find it a maid’s duty to put the futon back in the closet.
Most traditional ryokans emphasize that this task should be performed by the staff. If you fold your futon yourself, the majority of employees do more work than they do for you. The chambermaids check the sleeping quarters for objects that have been left behind before they are put away. Classic ryokan rooms don’t have couches, so guests use the sleeping mats to relax in the evening. Many people fall asleep and then it can happen that smartphones, books or small game consoles fall out of their hands and end up under the bed linen. In the general stress of departure, it can then happen that the objects are forgotten.
Ryokans often give subtle hints
If the guests fold the futon themselves, the staff must unfold it again to check the linen. In addition, the fabric cover over the mat, the shikibuton, is removed and washed, as is the duvet cover. Both covers are difficult to remove for inexperienced hands and it is completely impossible when the mat is folded up. That’s why it’s easier for the maid to just leave the futon in the morning.
When tidying up and packing your suitcase, it can of course happen that the mats are in the way, because they can of course be folded up. The staff has no problem unfolding them again. However, if you have the space and fold your futon just out of politeness, leaving the futon alone is acting in the best interests of the staff, which is what ryokans always point out when their guests check out. The advice to simply leave the sleeping mats is more than an indication of the great Japanese hospitality, but has its justification and is intended to make the chambermaids’ work easier.