Kinzan

Kinzan is a ryotei ryokan — an inn built around its kitchen — with 31 rooms in two wings. Founded in 1929, rebuilt entirely in 1994, with rooms renovated in stages since 2021. Fourteen have their own hot spring bath; the 17 sukiya-style rooms in the west wing have a cypress or plain tub the inn states is not hot spring water.

Arima has two waters, and Kinzan is exact about which reaches which bath. Both bathhouses, Tsuzumi-no-yu and Hana-no-yu, each with an open-air bath and a dry sauna, carry only the gold spring (kinsen) from the Gokuraku source: an iron-bearing sodium chloride water, brown once it meets the air. The 14 renovated rooms carry the silver spring (ginsen), a radon-bearing cold mineral water heated room by room. Kibune, 150 sq m, has a fully outdoor tub; east-wing rooms have opening windows, so their baths work as indoor or half-open-air, with a mist sauna alongside. The bathhouses swap between men and women evening and morning, open 13:00–01:00 and 05:00–12:00. Guests with tattoos are refused the communal baths and directed to a room with its own.

Meals are Kyoto-style creative kaiseki, served in the room; parties of five or more eat in a private dining room, and some plans use the private-room restaurant Hanakaido.

Check-in is 15:00–19:00, check-out 12:00. Children of primary-school age and under are not admitted outside set family periods. Staff will fetch you by car from the station or bus stop; the walk up is steep.