Tocen Goshoboh

Goshoboh dates its founding to 1191 and calls itself Arima’s oldest inn. Its main house, a 1955 wing and an 1890 storehouse are on Japan’s national register of tangible cultural properties. Rooms hold books and calligraphy left by former guests; the two Premium Suites, about 130 sq m, have gold-spring baths in the room. There is no lift; rooms are up stairs.

Of Arima’s two waters this house pipes the gold. Its baths blend the Gosho and Netamu sources: an iron-bearing sodium chloride strong-salt water, 95°C at the wellhead, served free-flowing. The communal bath is semi-mixed — indoor sections divided by sex, meeting over a low partition outdoors, a layout the owner wanted so men and women could share the water. It is open 15:00 to 09:30. Yuya Matsukaze, a reservable bath a short walk away and nearest the source, takes four and is booked as an option when you reserve: 5,500 yen for 60 minutes. It closes irregularly, depending on the flow.

Dinner is a kaiseki sequence the house calls yamaga ryori, its own home cooking, with fish from Akashiura port, where the inn says it is the only Kobe ryokan admitted. Some rooms take meals in the room; fourth-floor Standard rooms cannot.

Check-in from 15:00; check-out 10:00 in Standard rooms, 11:00 elsewhere. Arima Onsen station on the Kobe Electric Railway is five minutes’ walk, and staff will collect you from it on a call. Children are accepted provided they stay quiet: sound carries in an old timber building.