For would-be 'tanizakis' By Features Desk
Publisher:The Yomiuri Shimbun - Publication Date: 12-03-2008

Ryokan and hotels in Kobe's Arima hot spring resort, which was loved by great writers, have started offering accommodation plans in which customers can write their autobiographies or other stories.

Customers who stay at such hotels will receive services designed to help them cultivate a writerly persona and can privately publish their work after consulting with an editor, according to Arima-Onsen Ryokan Kyodo Kumiai, an association of hotels and inns at the resort.

Three plans are being offered for three- to seven-day stays aimed at attracting members of the baby-boomer generation, who were born in the years 1947 and 1949. "Guests can do their writing in an area replete with the atmosphere of an historic hot spring resort," an association official said.

The Arima hot spring resort in Kita Ward has long been a favourite spot for writers as it retains a quiet mood despite its urban location. Junichiro Tanizaki (1886-1965), who lived in Kobe and Ashiya in Hyogo Prefecture, often stayed at the resort to write his novels. Other writers, such as Ryotaro Shiba (1923-1996), Eiji Yoshikawa (1892-1962) and Seicho Matsumoto (1909-1992), also stayed there.

As the baby-boomer generation, which includes many fans of such writers, is retiring, the association saw a business opportunity in offering the plans.

"It'll be a good opportunity for guests to have a nice rest in a hot spring and reflect on their life," the association official said.

The three plans were launched at the beginning of this month. In the three-day stay, instruction is given on how to structure a story. That plan costs 15,000 yen (US$146) plus the cost of accommodation. The five-day stay plan, also costing \15,000 on top of the accommodation, allows a customer to complete a digest version of a story. In the seven-day stay plan, which costs 30,000 yen ($291) plus accommodation, a customer brings in a story he or she has written, has it checked and prepares it for publication.

The plans are available at 26 hotels and ryokan at the resort. All customers signing up for them can receive advice from one of two editors contracted with the association.

Depending on requests from the customers, the hotels and inns will provide a writing desk, writing pad, and a tanzen jacket--a garment popularly associated with writers penning masterworks at ryokan. In one type of service, a woman will visit a room at night with a snack and ask how the guest's writing is going, addressing him or her as sensei--whose literal meaning is teacher, but which is also used as a polite form of address to refer to writers and others.

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