Takahan Ryokan some of the author's personal effects. 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
Tales of a Wayside Inn "Tales of a Wayside Inn". The collection was first published on November 23, 1863, with an initial print run of 15,000 copies. The "New York Times" called the book "a pleasant fiction" and an "excellent account". A second series was published in 1870, and a third published in 1872–1873. Though they sold well, the latter two volumes were less popular than the first. Many of the characters in "Tales of a Wayside Inn" were inspired by real people: Luigi Monti (the Sicilian), Daniel Treadwell (the theologian), Thomas William Parsons (the poet), Henry Wales (the student), Isaac Edrehi (the Spanish Jew),