[GoNative]

I've been to some very nice ryokans with excellent service and the food was awesome and more than plentiful (and I'm a big guy with a big appetite). I like sleeping on futons, my wife and I sleep on them at home.

The rooms certainly are somewhat spartan and won't include things like big leather couches or dining tables and big plasma screen TV's or any of the things you would expect in luxury western style accommodation. Whole point of staying in a ryokan for a westerner though is to have a somewhat uniquely Japanese experience and that's what it is.

I have been to a few where I was a little disappointed with the quality versus price but then there are a lot of places in Japan that are barely getting by and haven't been renovated much over the last 20 or so years.