One of the Three Best Onsens in Japan: Arima Onsen, Hyogo

Sup’ bros? It’s Mr. Wada on duty. I will share a short trip we’ve had lately. It’s Arima Onsen. Know where it is?

Contents

About Arima Onsen

Arima Onsen is one of the three well-known Onsens in Japan. Kusatsu (Gunma Prefecture), Gero (Gifu Prefecture), and Arima (Hyogo Prefecture)!

To learn about Gero, check my previous post.

One of the Three Best Onsens in Japan: Gero Onsen

It’s about a two-hour drive from Okayama to Arima.

It’s interesting that normally hot springs are in the mountains and far from city, but this one is only 30 minutes from Kobe City. It sounds close right?

Welcome to Arima

Here we are. It reminds me of Gero. Narrow roads, little stores, steeps. That’s how an Onsen city is like!

enter_arima

 

Walk in Arima

We walked around the town before going to Onsen.

 

Onsen Museum

Oh hey there’s an Onsen museum and it offers an entrance ticket including two major Onsens in town for 1,000 yen. Why not? (It’d cost like 600-700 for each Onsen.)

The museum was alright. Not so exciting but interesting.

Lunch Time (Kobe Beef)

We stopped at this place for Kobe Beef Gyudon (beef on rice) for lunch.

arima_restaurant_entrance

A little pricey though (1,000 yen for this regular size gyudon). It was meaty. Not like super fatty meat we’d expected (as seen on TV). I mean in a good way.

arima_kobe_beef_gyudon

On the contrary, this BBQ stick (1,300 yen!) was very fatty, in other words juicy! We liked both in different ways.

arima_kobe_beef_stick

Kin-No-Yu Onsen (Golden Hot Spring)

Now we are going into one of the onsen places – Kin-No-Yu. Kin (means gold) and yu (hot water) hah? Sounds gorgeous.

arima_kin_no_yu

No photos allowed inside (of course). Hot spring was quite hot than usual. As indicated at the door, don’t stay more than 10 minutes in this Onsen at once. Tried to cool down and go in like three times but still wouldn’t be able to stay long!

NOTE:
It contains lots of sodium (salt). It would hurt if you got wounds or scratches on your body.

 

There’s FREE foot bath outside the building. Apparently this is the same hot spring water of Kin No Yu itself!

arima_foot_onsen

Free stuff!

 

Gin-No-Yu Onsen (Silver Hot Spring)

I was still sweating after Kin-No-Yu but we had to move on. Gotta finish the other one before it gets dark. Next one is Gin-No-Yu (Gin refers to silver).

arima_gin_no_yu_entrance

arima_gin_no_yu_hall

Actually it was very ordinary. Though still very hot…

Lastly

Turns out Onsen hopping is a little hard though sure fun still. Now I’m wondering how Kusatsu is like. Hope we’ll make it one day. Hehe.

Website: http://visit.arima-onsen.com/

See you around!

arima_milk

Milk tastes awesome after Onsen!



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4 Responses

  1. ᐃᓄᒃ ᑭᕙᑖ says:

    So, there are different hot pools, I suppose? What about steam rooms or saunas? Are Onsen segregated (mens area and women’s area)?

  1. 2016年9月26日

    […] Early Spring Trip 2016: Arima Onsen, Hyogo […]

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    […] the most popular hot spring resorts in Toyooka city, a Northern part of Hyogo prefecture (including Arima onsen). Hot springs (onsen) have been running since Heian era […]

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