An onsen town with gold and silver waters
Arima is one of Japan's oldest hot springs, written about in a chronicle from the year 720. Two kinds of water rise here, rust-brown kinsen ("gold water") and clear ginsen ("silver water"), and you can try both at the public bathhouses, which allow tattoos. It is about an hour from Osaka by bus, or 30 minutes from Kobe.
The public bathhouse for kinsen, water so full of iron and salt that it comes out clear and turns rust-brown as it meets the air. It reopened in March 2026 after renovation, and a combined ticket also covers Gin no Yu.
The public bathhouse for ginsen, a clear water with carbonic acid and radium, a sharp contrast to the brown kinsen. About 5 minutes on foot from Arima Onsen Station.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the warlord who unified Japan in the 16th century, loved Arima's waters. This museum shows the remains of the bathhouse he is said to have built, with a steam bath and a rock bath, found when a temple was rebuilt after the 1995 Kobe earthquake.