The gold spring
Yellow-brown water.
Mass Ave 975 — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Mass Ave 975 — CC BY-SA 3.0 · 明芳 松岡 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · 明芳 松岡 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · 663highland — CC BY 2.5
Arima Onsen is a hot spring town in Kita ward, Kobe, near Mount Rokkō, about 13 km north of central Kobe in a straight line. It is easy to reach from Osaka and Kobe and is one of Japan's oldest hot spring resorts. The Heian-period Pillow Book named it among Japan's three famous springs, and in the Edo period it was considered the most prestigious of all. The ruler Toyotomi Hideyoshi visited several times in the 16th century. Arima has two kinds of water: kinsen, the «gold spring», coloured yellow-brown by iron and salt, and ginsen, the «silver spring», clear and containing radium and carbonate. Narrow lanes wind between wooden houses and shops, and steam rises from the spring sources. You can bathe at two public bathhouses named after the two springs, or at traditional inns. Tsuzumi Falls lies in a green valley near the town, and maples colour the hills around it in autumn.
Yellow-brown water.
Wooden houses.
Near town.
Kita ward, Kobe, Hyōgo prefecture, Japan
Yes, at the public baths.
By train or bus from Kobe.