Nakanobo Zuien

Nakanobo Zuien is an adults-only ryokan in Arima Onsen, Kobe: guests under 13 are not admitted, infants included. Rooms are sukiya-style, from a 27 sq m six-mat room for solo guests to suites of 138 sq m.

Zuien is precise about which of Arima’s two waters goes where. Its gold spring runs directly from the Tenjin source: an iron-bearing sodium chloride strong-salt spring, on a mix of flow-through and recirculation, with no water added and no reheating. Both communal bathhouses, Zuisen and Sosen, carry gold spring only and swap between men and women overnight; they open 14:00–24:00 and 5:30–12:00. The reservable family bath Jusen is gold spring too, 4,400 yen. Free private open-air bathing carries the silver spring — weak radioactive, heated and diluted — and needs no booking: you lock the door from inside. Some rooms have their own gold- or silver-spring tub; the inn says plainly that any bath not labelled kinsen (gold) or ginsen (silver) is not hot spring water. Tattoos are barred from the communal baths, and the inn suggests the private bath instead.

Dinner is kaiseki, with four courses always on the menu plus a teppan counter and a brick-kiln room, served in your room or a private dining room; last start 19:30.

Check-in is 14:00, checkout 12:00, though some listings still show 15:00. It is a two-minute walk from the bus stop, a free shuttle runs within Arima town, and guests may use the baths at the sister Arima Grand Hotel.