Nakanobo Zuien

Arima's big classic inn: rust-red kinsen in the large baths, a shogi-title venue with a garden lobby — book a kinsen room by phone and you'll see why regulars keep coming back

Nakanobo Zuien traces itself to Nakanobō, one of Arima's twelve medieval temple lodgings, and today it's a large, polished inn of about 50 rooms on up to eight floors, with a garden lobby with koi and a regular role as a venue for the Ōi-sen shogi title match (most recently in July 2026). Its draw is the water: the large baths run only kinsen, Arima's iron-rich, very salty 'gold' spring, with no heating and no added water per the inn, though it's partly recirculated. A free, lockable ginsen (radon) open-air bath on the 6th floor, a paid private kinsen bath and a shuttle to the sister Arima Grand Hotel's baths add variety. Japanese guests rate it 4.74 across 793 reviews on Rakuten, 4.64 across 137 on Ikyu (baths 4.81) and 4.4 across 890 on Jalan. The best stays are in rooms with their own kinsen or ginsen open-air bath; the risk is the online 'room left to us' plan, which can land you in a 3rd-floor room with a cramped unit bath. Dinner reviews are mixed — some find the kaiseki excellent, others 'entirely ordinary' for the price — and several 2026 reviews fault staff manners. No children under 13, and tattoos are refused in the shared baths. A September 2026 suite stay cost ¥95,300 per person for two with two meals.