Arima Onsen is one of Japan’s oldest hot spring towns, tucked into the hills behind Kobe. It’s small, walkable, and surprisingly easy to reach from the Kansai area, with JR trains from Osaka taking roughly over an hour. The town is known for its kinsen, an iron-rich, reddish-brown mineral water that’s been drawing visitors for centuries.
We’ve been coming back to Arima Onsen since 2022. On earlier visits, we only tried the private hot spring baths as day-use guests, paying around S$90 to S$100 for an hour at a time. Eventually, we decided to stay overnight to get the full ryokan experience, and Hotel Hanakoyado was our pick.
Hotel Hanakoyado is a small boutique ryokan with just 11 rooms, located right beside the stairs leading up to Onsenji Temple. The property is a blend of traditional Japanese wooden architecture and early-Showa era Western touches, and the whole place has the feel of somewhere that’s been carefully looked after rather than commercially renovated.
Check-in
Check-in is officially at 3pm, and the staff generally don’t budge on this. The check-in process itself takes a while. The staff walked us through the property in detail, explaining the various facilities, the hot spring access arrangements, the breakfast timings, and the general flow of how a stay here works. They then gave us a tour of the room and pointed out everything we needed to know.
We were asked to choose our breakfast timing at check-in, with three slots available: 8am, 8.30am, and 9am. Those are your only options, so plan accordingly.
We didn’t book the ryokan dinner on this visit, and in hindsight, we should have. The full kaiseki dinner is part of the traditional ryokan experience, and skipping it meant we missed out on what other guests seemed to be enjoying. Something to keep in mind if you’re considering a stay here.
A no-shoes policy applies throughout the entire property. You leave your shoes at the entrance and move around in slippers or socks for the duration of your stay.
The room
We booked a Japanese-style room on the first floor. The room came with two twin beds rather than futons, which is Hanakoyado’s signature “bed on tatami” style that the property has been doing since 1999. It blends the comfort of a proper bed with the feel of a traditional Japanese room: tatami flooring, shoji screens, a tokonoma alcove, and a general sense of calm that you don’t get in a standard hotel room.
We had originally booked a Western-style room, but switched to the Japanese room after reading reviews online. The switch was worth it. The Japanese room opens onto a walkway in the backyard, which adds a layer of connection to the property that you wouldn’t get from the upper-floor Western rooms. Being able to step outside and walk along the garden path in your yukata made the stay feel more immersive.
The room appears to come with two twin beds as standard. We didn’t see configurations with a single larger bed, so couples should be prepared for separate beds. There’s also an in-room TV, though we hardly used it. You’re here for the onsen and the atmosphere, not for screen time.
In-room amenities
The in-room amenities are well thought out. The room came with a safe deposit box, two complimentary bottles of water, and a small set of financiers from Coccinelle, a nearby bakery. Yukatas were provided and swapped according to gender, with the staff helping to ensure the right size and style.
For drinks, there were Nespresso Professional capsules along with matcha sticks, which is a step above the usual instant coffee sachets that most ryokans provide.
To use the Nespresso capsules, you will need to use the machine, which is found along the hallway outside your room.
A basket of towels was also provided, along with instructions on how to use the private onsens within Hotel Hanakoyado and how to visit the sister property Goshoboh’s hot springs.
Bathroom
The bathroom has a toilet and sink but no shower. This caught us off guard at first, but it makes sense in context. You’re in a hot spring town, and the showers are located inside the private onsens. There’s no need for a separate shower in the room when you’ll be using the onsens for bathing throughout your stay.
Other services
The ryokan also sells cakes for ¥300 each, but orders need to be placed the day before. We didn’t try them this time, though they looked appealing in the display. Likewise, for facial and spa treatments, we did not try them either.
Hot springs
This is the main reason to stay at Hotel Hanakoyado, and it delivers.
Private onsens
The hotel has two private onsens, both fed by the kinsen spring. They’re available for guests around the clock, with no reservation needed. There’s a light indicator system that shows whether each bath is occupied or not, so you can check before heading down. Rooms on the lower floors have a clear view of the indicator lights. Upper-floor rooms have a harder time seeing them, so you may need to walk down to check.
The private onsens are the best part of the stay. On previous visits, we had paid around S$90 to S$100 for a one-hour private onsen session as day-use guests. As overnight guests, the same baths are included at no extra cost, available throughout the evening and into the morning. The value proposition is immediately obvious.
Goshoboh hot spring
Hanakoyado guests also have access to the hot spring at the sister property, Goshoboh, on the same day until 8pm. We took advantage of this and used one of Goshoboh’s half-open-air baths. It was a lovely experience, and reminded me of a similar onsen visit in Hokkaido back in 2016. If you have time before 8pm, it’s well worth the walk over.
No photos were allowed, but it was really beautiful and the temperature was just right, given that it’s also a semi-open onsen.
Breakfast
Breakfast is served at the Shunju Dining Room and follows a traditional kaiseki format. The meal included grilled fish, a variety of small Japanese dishes, rice, miso soup, and pickles. It was carefully presented and clearly prepared with attention to the ingredients and the season.
There’s even an explanation displayed outside the dining room detailing the dishes and the thinking behind the breakfast, which added some context to what was being served.
The three available timeslots 8am, 8.30am, and 9am are the only options, and you choose at check-in. Given the size of the property (11 rooms), the intimate dining room fills up quickly at each sitting.
Transport
Hotel Hanakoyado provides complimentary private transport for guests heading back to the train station. We didn’t request a transfer from the train station to the hotel on arrival, but the option is there if you ask I suppose.
The service runs one room per trip, so we waited a while for our turn during checkout. Once we were on the road, the ride itself was quick. Worth noting that this is a small operation, so factor in some buffer time if you have a train to catch.
Concluding thoughts
Arima Onsen is a place we keep coming back to, and each visit reinforces why. For Hotel Hanakoyado, the private onsens alone justify the stay. Being able to soak in the kinsen spring at any hour of the night, without the time pressure or cost of a day-use session, changes the experience entirely. The Japanese-style room was the right call, and the access to Goshoboh’s baths on the same day adds further value.
The property is small, quiet, and well looked after. It doesn’t try to be a luxury resort. It’s a traditional ryokan that takes its food, its baths, and its atmosphere seriously, and does all three well.
If you’re visiting Arima Onsen and want the full overnight ryokan experience, Hotel Hanakoyado is an excellent choice. Book the dinner. Choose the Japanese room. And leave enough time to use the private onsens more than once. We’ll be back.
