"Arima Isn't Ruined": Why Japanese Visitors Go to Arima Onsen for the Day and Skip the ¥30,000 Ryokan

What Japanese visitors said — picked from the top 200 of 331 comments

• It hasn't turned into ruins... calling it that is blatant clickbait 😡

  廃墟化はしてないやろ…タイトル詐欺も甚だしい😡

  — @thibipon4371118 likes

• Some ryokan have gone out of business, but on the whole I think it's keeping its buzz. Lately there have been too many videos slapping negative, sensational headlines like "turning into ruins" or "becoming a ghost town" on Kobe, and it makes me sad to see a local town casually labelled that way, so I'd like it to stop.

  廃業している旅館もあるとは言え、全体的には賑わいを維持していると思います。 最近、神戸をテーマにして廃墟化やゴーストタウン化などネガティブで扇情的な見出しをつける動画が目に余りますが、地元の街に安易に不名誉なレッテルを貼られるのは悲しい気持ちになるので止めていただきたいですね。

  — @user-kn3il8wu1h90 likes

• Arima Onsen is close to Osaka and Kobe, so day trips have become the main thing. And the reason people look away from staying the night is that the room rates have got far too expensive.

  有馬温泉は大阪神戸から近いという事で日帰り温泉が主になってるんですよね。そしてあまりにも宿泊料金が高価になりすぎているのが宿泊から目をそらした理由なんですよね。

  — @rio5626170 likes

• Arima is a day trip for me, staying is too expensive 😢 And there aren't many business hotels either.....

  有馬は行っても日帰りやねー、泊まるのは高すぎる😢 ビジホもあんまないし.....

  — @G13-z1v10 likes

• Because it's somewhere you can do as a day trip from Osaka or Kobe, the places to stay are going to struggle to pull people in unless they have some selling point, the food or whatever.

  大阪神戸から日帰りで行ける場所だから 宿泊施設は食事などの何かしらのアピールポイントがないと 集客に苦戦するでしょうね

  — @kyoko734311 likes

• Well, it doesn't have the completely finished feel that places in Kanto or Hokuriku do. The big reason, as others have said, is that it's near and convenient to get to. You couldn't commute, but if you're going out with a purpose it's about an hour from Osaka and 40 minutes from Kobe. I live in Nishinomiya, and my father, aunt and eldest son rest at a cemetery called Hakusuikyo next to Arima Onsen, so I go about twice a year, and from Nishinomiya it's about 30 minutes.

  まぁ関東・北陸などにある完全に廃れた感はないですね。 大きな理由は他の方も言われていますが、行くのは近くて便利なんですよ。 通勤とかだと無理ですけど目的をもって遊びに行くなら大阪から1時間、神戸から40分ほどですね。 私は西宮在住ですけど、有馬温泉の隣にある白水峡という霊園に父親と叔母、長男が眠っているので年2回ほど行きますが、 西宮からだと30分くらいです。

  — @chachachayama6 likes

• The old hotels built in the 70s have aged. But there are plenty of people walking the onsen street.

  ７０年代に建った古いホテルが老朽化。でも温泉街は人通り多いです。

  — @stenmalk-h9m75 likes

• There are a lot of aged buildings, but as long as the hot spring doesn't run dry I don't think the brand loses anything.

  老朽化した建物も多いですが、温泉が枯れない限りブランド力は変わらない気がします。

  — @利明-p7v152 likes

• More than ten years ago I delivered towels and sheets to Arima Onsen for a linen company. Back then a lot of the buildings had come out of seismic assessment needing retrofit work, and the talk was that some hotels and ryokan wouldn't be able to find the money for it. Watching this video, I'm stunned that Okunobo and Kosenkaku have closed 😨

  10年以上前にリネン屋で有馬温泉にタオル、シーツ等を配達してました。 当時、建物の耐震診断により耐震工事をしなければいけない建物が多数あったみたいです・・ その資金が捻出出来ないホテル・旅館も出てくるだろうなあ・・って噂になってました・・ この動画を観て、奥ノ坊や古泉閣などが閉館してたのは驚愕ですね・・😨

  — @みひろっく31 likes

• Every year for more than twenty years I've had a year-end party at Arima Onsen with close friends, and we used Kosenkaku many times, including in December 2024. When I was looking for a place for the 2025 party, Kosenkaku didn't come up at all, and I had no idea it had closed. Thank you for telling me. Counting the lodge wing, we used it more than ten times. What a shame. Arima Onsen used to have a lot of ryokan with "bo" in the name, and lately I'd noticed there were fewer when I searched. So Okunobo was one of them.

  毎年(20年以上)、気心知れた友人と有馬温泉で忘年会をしていまして、この古泉閣も何度も利用し、2024年12月にも利用しました。2025年の忘年会の宿を探す時に古泉閣が全く出てこなかったのですが、まさか閉館していたとは知りませんでした。教えていただきありがとうございます。ロッジ棟も含め10回以上は利用しました。残念です。 有馬温泉♨️は坊のつく旅館が多かったのですが、昨今探しても少ないと思っていました。奥の坊もその一つだったのですね。 身近な観光地を色々と教えて頂きありがとうございました！

  — @kakusan196457 likes

• Born and raised in Kobe, living in Nishinomiya now, and I go to Arima now and then... that was a fun video. Arima was an old-style onsen town too, but in recent years stylish places have opened and you do feel it moving with the times. The lanes being narrow is one thing nobody can fix though lol

  神戸生まれ神戸育ち、現在西宮在住で有馬にはたまに行くけど・・・おもろい動画やった。 有馬も古いタイプの温泉街やったけど、近年はおしゃれなところも出来たりして、時代に沿った進化は感じる。 まー道が細いのはどうにもならんけどな(笑)

  — @NM-ft6nr27 likes

• I live nearby and go running there sometimes, but I don't go round the back, so I had no idea there were this many ruins. I hope the trade association's work goes well.

  近所に住んでいて球に走りに行きますが裏側に入らないのでこんなに廃虚があるのは知りませんでした。組合の活動がうまくいけばと願います。

  — @GOLDWOODS111 likes

• My memory of Arima Onsen is that there's nowhere near enough parking and the roads are too narrow, so it was hard work.

  有馬温泉は駐車場なさすぎ、道狭すぎで大変だった記憶あります

  — @neatneatcat30 likes

• I stayed at Arima Rikyu in December 2025. I wanted to do the eat-your-way-along-the-street thing, but the shops close early, don't they. That was a let-down..

  2025.12月　有馬離宮に宿泊してきました。 温泉街で食べ歩きみたいなこと したかったんですけど 早い時間に、お店閉まってしまうんですね。 残念でした。。

  — @jerrynyan28575 likes

• For all the big ruins, I was surprised how many tourists there were when I went. I stopped in for a day bath and the water was a deep reddish brown, really good. There are a lot of slopes, but I liked the atmosphere. Next time I'll stay over.

  大型廃墟が多い割に行ったら観光客が多かったのが驚きました。日帰り湯で寄りましたが、超茶褐色で凄く良かった。坂が多いですが雰囲気は気に入りました。今度は泊まりに行きます。

  — @ドットコム12527 likes

• I'm a local, and: expensive, not tasty, the hot spring isn't all that appealing. Natural result.

  地元民ですが、高い　おいしくない　　温泉が大して魅力的でない　当然の結果

  — @健康科学-w1c5 likes

• The facilities are old, and the food is... a bit... no, quite dated (not photogenic, very Showa). And the price is more than respectable... Satisfaction on the low side, maybe? Well, I've only been three times, so that isn't the whole picture at all, but I wouldn't go out of my way to pick it.

  施設も古くて、料理も…ちょっと…いやかなり古臭くて(ばえない…昭和感) お値段一丁前以上なんよな… 満足感低い…かな？ ま、3回しか言ってないからそれが全て！では全くないんだが… あえては選ばないかな

  — @turtleslow78766 likes

• On staying at Arima Onsen: a ryokan of any decent standard is about 30,000 yen a head per night, and a luxury one comfortably 100,000 or so, so it's mostly aimed at tourists and overseas visitors. I live in the Hanshin area, and if people from Kobe or Osaka use Arima Onsen it's pretty much Kin no Yu and Gin no Yu.

  有馬温泉宿泊について、ある程度のランクの旅館は１人約3万円/泊以上するし、高級旅館になればゆうに10万円前後/泊以上するのでほとんど観光客やインバウンド向けですね。阪神間住まいですが、神戸大阪など地元民が有馬温泉を利用するならほぼ金の湯銀の湯ですね。

  — @sububa081746 likes

• "It's gushing out, you know" (°▽°) Funny way to put it. And the intonation is clearly not Kansai lol. Arima Onsen is one of Hyogo's two great hot springs along with Kinosaki, you know. It can't possibly be turning into ruins. Hyogo has plenty of other fine hot springs too: Yumura, Awaji Island, Ako, Takarazuka, Shiota ❗

  「(有馬温泉は)湧出しとるんよ」(°▽°)面白い言い方ですね。イントネーションも関西とは明らかにちゃうし（爆笑）。有馬温泉は兵庫県でも城崎温泉と共に二大温泉ですよ〜。廃墟化してるわけ無いやん。他にも湯村温泉、淡路島温泉、赤穂温泉、宝塚温泉、塩田温泉と兵庫には名湯がいっぱいあります❗️

  — @枝豆とビール-o4h29 likes

• I used to go to Arima Health Center, the place Taiko no Yu grew out of, a lot as a kid. I still remember the trout fishing we did there.

  太閤の湯の前身、有馬ヘルスセンターには子供の頃よく行ったなぁ あそこでやったマス釣りいまだに覚えてる

  — @neokaazu23 likes

• SaveKin no Yu↗金の湯Arima Onsen, Kita-ku, Kobe

  The town-run gold spring, and half of what people from Kobe and Osaka actually use Arima for (46 likes). A day visitor calls the water deep reddish brown and says it was superb (27 likes). There is a free foot bath outside.

  Sources: feel-kobe.jp — checked 2026-08-20

• SaveGin no Yu↗銀の湯Arima Onsen, Kita-ku, Kobe

  The other town bath, a clear carbonated and radium spring a few minutes uphill from Kin no Yu. The pair is what long-time guests name as Arima's famous baths, even the ones who still book a ryokan every year (38 likes).

  Sources: feel-kobe.jp — checked 2026-08-20

• SaveArima Onsen Taiko no Yu↗有馬温泉 太閤の湯Arima Onsen, Kita-ku, Kobe

  The big paid bath complex, remembered in the thread as the successor to the old Arima Health Center where a commenter fished for trout as a child (23 likes). The Health Center opened in 1962 and was rebranded Taiko no Yu in 2006.

  Sources: taikounoyu.com · ja.wikipedia.org — checked 2026-08-20

Named in the source comments. Where a note gives a price, opening status or rule, we checked it against the linked source on the date shown — everything else is what the comments said. All of it can change; check the map listing before you go.

Can you visit Arima Onsen as a day trip?

Yes, and that is how most people in Kansai use it. The town's own access page puts it at about 60 minutes from Osaka Station, 70 from Shin-Osaka and 80 from Umeda; one commenter living in Nishinomiya says 30 minutes, and reckons Osaka an hour and Kobe about 40 minutes (6 likes). You do not need a room to bathe: the two town-run baths, Kin no Yu and Gin no Yu, take walk-ins, which is what the most-quoted local habit in the thread describes (46 likes).

Sources: arima-onsen.com — checked 2026-08-20

How much are the public baths in Arima Onsen?

Kin no Yu, the brown iron-rich gold spring, is 800 yen for adults and 650 yen on ordinary weekdays outside the peak periods, open 8:00 to 22:00 with last entry at 21:30, closed on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday and 1 January. Gin no Yu, the clear radium and carbonated spring, is 550 yen on weekdays and 700 yen at weekends, 9:00 to 21:00, closed on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday. The larger bath complex Taiko no Yu is a different order of price at 2,750 yen on weekdays and 2,970 yen at weekends, plus 75 yen bathing tax.

Sources: hyogo-tourism.jp · arimaspa-kingin.jp · taikounoyu.com — checked 2026-08-20

Is it worth staying overnight in Arima Onsen?

Japanese visitors in this thread say the price is the problem, not the town. A ryokan of any standard runs about 30,000 yen per person and the high-end ones around 100,000, which is why the reader-facing verdict is go for the day (46 likes), and another puts it plainly: Arima is a day trip, staying is too expensive, and there are barely any business hotels (10 likes). Two practical notes if you do stay: parking is scarce and the lanes are narrow (30 likes), and the shops on the onsen street shut early, which ruined one guest's plan to eat their way along it (5 likes).

Are the ryokan in Arima Onsen closing down?

Some famous ones have. Motoyu Kosenkaku, a 69-year-old ryokan with its own gold-spring source, stopped operating on 2 June 2025 because the building could not be renovated economically, which took even 20-year regulars by surprise (57 likes). A commenter who used to deliver linen there says seismic retrofits were already looming over many of the buildings more than a decade ago, and names Okunobo as another that has gone (31 likes). The street itself is not going anywhere: the 1970s hotels are what aged, while foot traffic stayed heavy (75 likes).

Sources: kobe-np.co.jp · happypack-kobe.jp — checked 2026-08-20