Halal, Vegan, Allergies, Tattoos, Kids: How to Get Answers From a Japanese Ryokan or Restaurant Before You Book
Last updated: 28 August 2026 · Written in Japan
You have a shortlist of ryokan open in your browser tabs. They all look wonderful, they all have rooms on your dates — and the question that actually decides which one you book isn't answered anywhere. Can the kitchen do a vegan kaiseki? Will the bath admit tattoos? Is there somewhere to pray?
Availability is easy to check. Suitability is not — and suitability is what really determines where you stay and eat.
What booking sites tell you
- Rooms free on your dates
- The price
- Photos and star ratings
What decides where you book
- Can they cook without dashi?
- Pork- and alcohol-free?
- Tattoos in the bath?
- Somewhere to pray?
- A toddler at dinner?
Why that information isn't online
Booking platforms exist to answer two questions: is it free, and what does it cost. Some restaurants on Tabelog take online reservations, and many ryokan are bookable through Rakuten Travel or Jalan — but no listing tells you whether the kitchen can leave out the dashi.
That isn't an oversight. Small places handle these case by case, and the honest answer is usually conditional:
- "Vegan? With two weeks' notice, yes — but not in peak season."
- "Not in the big bath, but the private bath is free to reserve."
- "We're not halal-certified, but we can cook without pork or alcohol — and there's a quiet tatami room you're welcome to pray in."
None of that fits in a checkbox, so it never gets published. It exists only in the head of the person who answers the phone.
The questions that decide it
Diet
Vegan, vegetarian, allergies. Be specific — "no meat" and "no dashi, no fish, no egg" are very different requests in a Japanese kitchen.
Faith
Certification is rare, but many places will cook pork- and alcohol-free on request. The trap is seasoning — mirin and cooking sake are in almost everything. Few have a prayer room; many will lend a quiet tatami room if asked.
Tattoos
Whether the communal bath admits them, whether cover stickers count, and whether a private bath (kashikiri) is available — and at what cost.
Children
Minimum age, whether dinner service suits a toddler, whether a futon and a child's meal can be added.
Access
Steps at the entrance, a lift, floor seating versus chairs, and how far it really is from the station.
Practicalities
Cash only, luggage forwarding, late check-in, whether an English menu exists at all.
These are the questions where a wrong assumption costs you a whole evening of your trip.
Five ways to get an answer
1. Write in simple Japanese
If there's a contact form or an email address, a short message in Japanese has a far better chance than English. Machine translation is fine here — keep it short, and put one question per numbered line so each gets answered separately.
宿泊を検討しているのですが、2点質問させてください。
1. ヴィーガン料理には対応していただけますか？
2. タトゥーがあるのですが、お風呂は利用できますか？
お返事いただけますと幸いです。
Limits: many small places rarely check email, and response rates are hit-or-miss. If nothing comes back in three or four days, assume it wasn't read — silence isn't a "no", and it isn't something you can plan around.
Watch the literal answer. Ask "do you have vegan food?" and a polite "we can prepare something" may arrive as a fish-stock broth. Ask "is it halal?" and you may be answered on the pork alone, while the simmering liquid still holds mirin. The nuance is exactly where these questions live.
2. Try a social media DM
A place that hasn't touched its website in a decade may still post on Instagram every week. If the account is active, a short message in Japanese often gets read faster than email. Best for simple questions — replies tend to be brief.
3. Call and ask yourself
For a clean yes/no, this can work. Call during Japanese business hours; for restaurants, 15:00–17:00 Japan time is the golden window, after lunch service and before dinner prep.
Limits: this is the approach most likely to give you a confident answer that's wrong. Conditional replies — "usually yes, but not in October" — are the ones that matter, and the first thing lost across a language barrier. From the US or Europe, it also means calling in the middle of your night.
4. Ask a Japanese-speaking friend
The best option there is, if you have one — they can hear hesitation in an answer and ask the follow-up. But most travellers don't have one, and comparing four places means four calls' worth of favours.
What about the hotel concierge? They can help with other venues once you've checked in, but this research happens weeks earlier, while you're still choosing. Asking a hotel to make calls before you're a guest isn't a normal request in Japan.
5. Have a local ask for you
This is the service we run, so weigh this section accordingly — but it exists because of the gaps above.
You send the place and your questions
We phone them in Japanese, in their business hours
You get what they said, in plain English
Moshi Moshi Desk is a one-person desk in Japan. Answers arrive by email within 72 hours. It's $8 per place for up to three questions, so you can put the same questions to every place on your shortlist and compare the answers side by side.
We ask questions and report the answers. We don't book anything. Making reservations on someone else's behalf for a fee requires a travel-agency licence in Japan, and we don't hold one.
That fits this stage anyway: what you're missing is the information that tells you which place to book. Once you have it, the booking itself takes two minutes on a site you were already looking at. And if we can't get your answers, you get a full refund.
Still deciding where to book?
Send us the questions that decide it. We call, they answer, you get it in plain English — $8 per place, full refund if we can't get through.
See how it works →Answers by email within 72 hours.
Already know what you want to ask? Go straight to the form →Which approach fits your situation
| Your situation | Best approach |
|---|---|
| One simple question, and weeks to spare | Message in Japanese (1), or a DM (2) |
| A clean yes/no, and the time zone doesn't bother you | Call with a script (3) |
| You know someone who speaks Japanese | Ask them (4) |
| The answer is conditional — halal, allergies, tattoos, prayer space, kids, access | Have a local ask (5) |
| Comparing several places on the same criteria | Have a local ask (5) |
| Booking opens soon and you need the answer this week | Have a local ask (5) |
Six questions worth keeping on your phone
However you get them, get your answers before you book, not after. The small, phone-only places are almost always worth the extra step — and they're far more accommodating than their silent websites suggest. You just have to ask.
Written by Moshi Moshi Desk, a one-person desk in Japan that phones restaurants, ryokan and activities on behalf of travellers and reports back what they said, in English. See what we do →