Arima is a little Onsen (spa) town near Kobe... It is one of the oldest spa in Japan!
It is very nice to walk around too for half a day. with lots of nice little shops selling craftwork/FOODDDD
Being a food blog : p I will start by talking about the famous local produce
Arima soda (tasted abit like cream soda.. but fizzier) - made by the Carbon dioxide from the spring water
Arima Wafer - made by the carbon dioxide from the spring water
They sell it plain / with custard cream in between.
very light and crispy
It looks a bit like those deer cookies back at Nara :p haha....
THESE MOCHI ARE SOOO GOOOOOD
It's grilled with a sweet brown sauce with the machine below
There's a shop at the train station!
This isn't an Arima specialty.. but Kobe's
a bit like takoyaki..
but it is made with a much lighter and more eggy batter
and when you eat it, instead of dipping it in TONS of mayo/japanese bbq/okonomiyaki sauce
you drizzle some spices e.g. yuzu salt/ 7 taste powder/ clove powder etc
then dip it in this clear broth.
VERY NICE :)
So about onsen :)
Arima Onsen has two kinds of springs. One is kinsen (金泉, "gold spring"), which has water colored yellow-brown from iron and salt. The other is ginsen (銀泉, "silver spring"), which is colorless and contains radium and carbonate. (ref: Wiki :p)
- explaining the benefit of each spring water and who shouldn't be in it.
Here's the source of the gold spring.
We stayed at Taketoritei Maruyama - quite a walk from the centre. but they offer shuttle bus from/to the train/bus station. It is next to a park - which was deserted :p there isn't much there but we managed to find this little waterfall :)
quite nice huh :)
Here's the entrance - nothing overly excited from ourside.
As soon as we entered, we were greated with a nice cup of tea and a little japanese steamed sweet
We love it so much that we bought 2 boxes back for our friends.
It is a little steamed bun with red bean and plum? inside - so it is not as sweet as the other ones.
It's so nice to eat it with a nice cup of Japanese tea.
All the ladies can choose a colourful yukata (Japanese bath robe) from the table there at the back.
Little onsen bags with pretty Japanese prints was given to us as a gift from the hotel :)
After checking in, I was carried to the lift by this cart lol - quite gimmicky as it's just < 100m away..haha but was fun :p
Our room
That's the cheapest option available - the Maruyama room - with our own toilet but no personal bathroom.
It is not a problem at all! Since there are shared bathroom right next to the onsen room anyway.
You are supposed to have a shower right before you get into the onsen.
The shared shower room has a whole range of shower gel/ body scrub/ shampoo/ conditioner to choose from.
They also have shiseido facial cleanser/cream and toner!
you really can just go to Arima for a do without bringing ANYTHING
(they also provides PJ/towel/slippers etc)
Almost all of the Onsens in Japan today are separated into male and female bathing area. But in this hotel, there are a few personal onsen rooms which you can book for 40 minutes for free :)
We've booked this outdoor one: with the gold spring on the right and silver on the left.
HOWEVER, the water was uncomfortably hot!!!!!!!
They have push the temperature up too high.
There's also a recreation room with internet access and massage chair!!!
having a massage right after onsen is totally what we need after 5 days of intensive walking!!!
Another highlight from the stay is FOOOOOOOOOOOOD
make sure you book a hotel that offers kaiseiki dinner! - which is a traditional multi course Japanese dinner.
Here's the menu :)
Appertizer : Pink Tofu with sakura leave and petals. Boiled Octopus with seasonal veg and veg salad.
A glass of cassis wine
Sea bream soup
Sashimi - with fish that I ahve never tasted raw before - Bonito/Amberjack!
I have only had bonito flakes :p
Bonito Sashimi's texture is a bit like tuna's.
We told them it's our honeymoon :p so we got a few extra course and a bottle of sake from the house :)
cooked fish head - SOOO NICEEEEE
the meat just flakes off from the bone
free sake
little rice ball with chesnut
stewed beef with creamy sauce
tempura - lotus root with duck and veg.
it was freshly deep fried on the side of the restaurant
rice, miso soup and pickled veg
sesame mousse with cocnut milk -
For breakfast!!!! you could pick between Japanese/Western.
we picked Japanese of course!
there's a vegetable tofu pot on the right
a range of pickled veg
steamed mackeral!
and it comes with rice and congee.
there were also freshly made japanese omelette roll - VERY NICE :)
it was gone before I could take photo of it :p
at 8.30 every morning, there's a mochi ceremony.
it was very interesting to watch
I didnt know they made it from freshly cooked rice!
the girl next to the chef just kept on adding water and folding the dough.
the mochi :) - with soya bean powder on the right and turnip sauce on the left
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