Takahan Ryokan Takahan Ryokan Takahan Ryokan is an historic ryokan (Japanese inn) located in Yuzawa, Niigata Prefecture, Japan. The inn is over 800 years old. The inn has an onsen (bath) called "Tamago no Yu" (English: egg-water) that is supplied by natural hot springs with a slight amount of sulfur. The inn has approximately 20,000 annual visitors, many of whom visit to soak in Tamago no Yu. The setting for the book "Snow Country" authored by Yasunari Kawabata is based upon Takahan Ryokan's location. The inn has preserved the room that Kawabata stayed and wrote in when he was there, along with
Birdcage Inn and Hye-mi spends the night with him instead of the sick Jin-a and loses her virginity. Though "Birdcage Inn" was not successful in the director's native country, South Korea, it was his first film which succeeded in attracting international attention. The film won the director, art award in Noosa Film Festival of Australia and was screened at the Berlin International Film Festival as an opening film in the Panorama section in February, 1999. Birdcage Inn Birdcage Inn (; lit. "Blue Gate") is South Korean director Kim Ki-duk's third film, released in 1998. The drama stars Lee Ji-eun, Lee Hae-eun and