I stayed in the 2 people room with bathroom for 15 nights in April, 2008. The rooms with bathrooms are worth the few extra bucks- they're much larger, since they have a separate small sitting room separated by sliding doors and a bathroom- 1 room with a sink, a tile bathtub large enough for 2 people to sit in (a small version of what you'd get in a suburban gym), & a shower with a stool to sit on next to it (instead of a regular shower in the tub) & 1 room with toilet (Japanese toilets are the best with all sorts of options, ie. heated seat & sprayer). The futons & tatami mat floors are comfortable.

My roommate liked the yukata robe so much that he bought a silk one in Tokyo. I bought a cotton yukata and slippers at the ryokan as I was checking out. They sell all sorts of stuff in case you need to do some last minute souvenir shopping.

There's a separate women's and men's bathroom with toilet & sink on every floor. There's a coin washer & dryer (detergent is supplied) on the top floor. There's also a vending machine with drinks on the ground floor. There are 2 computers in the lobby, which I used every morning to check email.

Women come to clean the rooms every morning at 10, so the ryokan is spotless.

As far as showers go, there are 2 excellent Japanese soaking bathtubs with separate showers on the ground floor. The bathrooms lock, so you have complete privacy when you bathe. Showering, bathing, & rinsing off was interesting. Those Japanese bathtubs were beyond anything after walking all over Tokyo all day long. I hadn't taken a bath since I was a little kid before that.

The father & son owners are extremely friendly & helpful throughout, and I recommend their ryokan to others for their level of customer service. I booked via their site for my entire stay, cause the Homeikan did not allow you to choose the building you stayed at, which makes all the difference according to reviewers.

During our stay, reporters came to interview the owner, and we filled out a survey regarding tourism to Japan. The other guests were also foreigners, but there wasn't much socializing besides during breakfast.

I had their Western breakfast every morning, cause it was quite good. My roommate had their Japanese breakfast a few times, which varied in quality, depending on the dishes.

Note: Do not under any circumstances request anything of the owner's wife, who is unfriendly even by New York standards. She refused to help on several different occasions to several different guests, myself included- how to turn on the heat (the remote is in Japanese), how to make a phone call on their payphone (which directs you in Japanese), or ordering breakfast (when a lady ordered at 9, she refused to take her order, because breakfast was 7:30 to 9). She even stated that a restaurant that required reservations would understand English merely because it was referenced in a travel guide, which is completely untrue- I encountered hardly any businesses with English-speaking staff, whether they were in a guide or not. I mostly got by with pointing to the pictures/model food or gesturing when there wasn't a bilingual menu. Some speak English but not very well. Let's face it, we all take years of a foreign language in high school and college, but how much can we speak as adults?