Hotel Hanakoyado

Hotel Hanakoyado is an eleven-room inn in Arima’s old spa quarter, on the stepped approach to Onsenji temple. The building is old wood, one of few left in Arima, renovated after the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake and modelled on the foreigners’ hotels that once stood here. Rooms are Japanese- and Western-style twins with beds, plus a suite; two premium twins, 36 and 42 sq m, occupy a separate building next door.

The water is Arima’s gold spring, kinsen, drawn from the Gosho and Neta sources beside the inn: iron- and salt-bearing, clear at source, browning in air. There is no communal bath. The two baths, Kaedero and Tsutabasu, run free-flowing, with water added or reheated when the spring demands it, and are private, 15:00 to 11:00 next morning, no reservation: you lock the door and guests take turns. Kaedero adds a steam room heated by the spring’s own vapour; Tsutabasu has a ramp and a bathroom wheelchair. Guests may also use the large half-mixed bath at sister inn Goshoboh, three minutes away, until 20:00. Only the premium twins have a bath in the room.

Meals are charged separately, served at Ryozen Shunju, the counter restaurant by the entrance. The house calls its cooking 山家料理 (mountain-house cooking) and sells dinner as a 山家会席 — charcoal-grilled, finished with rice from a kamado. No room service.

Check-in 15:00, check-out 12:00; 13 and over only, six to a booking, no pets, no smoking, no lift. Staff collect guests from Arima Onsen station on request.