Lounge

The lounge at Kinugawa Kan is on one of the upper floors, a long carpeted room with a row of armchairs facing the windows that look out over the river gorge. The carpet has been damp for so long that patches of mould bloom across it. The chairs are still arranged in their last configuration, two and three together around low tables. A few of the chairs have been knocked over. The windows are intact, though the frames have rust streaking down from the edges. Beyond them, the cliff drops away to the river, and the closed hotels on the opposite bank look back across.

This was the room hotel guests would come to between meals, between baths, or after dinner with a drink. The view across the gorge to other ryokans on the opposite cliff was part of what made Kinugawa Kan worth booking. The hotel ran for decades on weekend bookings out of Tokyo, two hours up the line by express train. When the bubble economy ended and group tourism dropped away, Kinugawa Kan held on for a few years before declaring bankruptcy in June 1999. The building was sealed and left in place. Every chair, every glass, every printed menu stayed where it was. The lounge has been quiet since.