Located in Kobe, Arima Onsen is among Japan's most popular hot spring destinations. Though not often frequented by tourists, this charming town is a favourite of locals and those looking to relax.
Saturday morning on the Kobe Electric Railway.
Unapologetic rays of afternoon sunlight filter through the clear train windows as we chug along the hilly terrain of Hyogo prefecture.
For three days now, we’d traipsed through what felt like the entirety of Japan, pausing to pray at Shinto shrines, wandering through open-air, high-ceilinged marketplaces, and lingering longingly at the aisles of every 7-11 or Family Mart we came across. Tired, and with our aching feet beneath us, we pointed our toes toward the ancient hot spring town of Arima Onsen.
Arima is by no means a tourist trap. In fact, I’d noticed that we were the only ones there. Frequented by Osaka and Kobe residents, Arima Onsen boasts an impressive thousand-year history as one of the country’s oldest hot spring resorts. Reachable by the Shintetsu Arima Line, the onsen town opens up to an impressive natural hot spring. Visitors can walk down rock stairs and stroll along paths that divide the hot spring into various pools and streams. It is the town's pièce de résistance, an impressive reminder of what it is most celebrated for.
Read more: Inside Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Japan: Video Tours
Being tourists, we simply had no clue. We followed the stream of people towards whichever bathhouse they were headed to and simply fell in line in front of a nondescript yellow building one kilometre from the train station. As with everything in Japan, tickets were sold from vending machines: we slipped in a few thousand yen and watched as the machine spat out crisp, white slips of paper.
As we walked further along inside the brightly lit building, it occurred to me that I'd never been to a public bath before. Of course, I knew there would be other people, but I hadn't realised that public nudity could induce such nervousness. As I stood in front of the smiling employee—who took my ticket and returned with a towel and a bow—I wondered how things would get along.
On the second floor, the men and women separated. Public bathhouses are conservatively segregated by gender. Walking together, my mother and I entered the locker room into the women's area, where we were greeted by Japanese mothers with young children in tow. Most had already disrobed, preparing to enter the baths. Nervously, we followed suit.
