I spent my new year vacation starting from Christmas Eve to New Year in Osaka, Kyoto, and Nara. The trip was for around 10days with my wife and our lovely teacup poodle, Noah. That’s quite fun and I truly hope this trip plan will be good reference for many foreigners who wants to visit these fantastic area in Japan.
Hotel Location
This time, we decided to stay my parent’s apartment which is a kind of Airbnb only for my family :) The reason is of course staying cost is for free (and the average airbnb price is lower than Kyoto which you better know), but also, the location is actually very convenient to travel around these area. Since the apartment is close to Tenoji station, which is one of the hub station in Osaka, thus, 30 minutes to Kyoto and one hour to Nara by JR Line. Also, with 5 minuites by train from the apartment, we can go to Tsuruhashi, the biggest Korean town in Osaka. We can have super tasty and cheep Korean BBQ and Japanese Beef BBQ there. So, for meet lovers, Tsuruhashi will be the best spot in Kanasai.
Picture about Korean BBQ
I know some people are trying to find Japanese hotel, so-called "Ryokan" in Kyoto, Nara, or Osaka. Of course they have, but, I don't recommend such ideas because the best way to enjoy Ryokan is definitely with Onsen, hot springs. Also, the stay cost of Ryokan is more expensive than hotels and Airbnb.
Also, in Osaka, there is a pretty famous big spa, called "Spa World". The location is close to JR Shin-imamiya Station close to my parent apartment in Tennoji. This place has no hot spring, but, has 6 floors and you can enjoy world-wide spa cultures here. They have relaxation space. Also, they have amusement pool for kids, so, good for family, and they have restaurants and hotel inside. The entrance ticket cost is US$10 per a person. Very cheep. After midnight, you have to pay additionally $10 for staying cost. We sometime visited here during our stay.
Here is Google Map Link.
Visit Spot1 - Arima Onsen
Actually, another reason we decided to stay here is Arima Onsen, the most major hot spring spot in Kansai, is also very close to JR Osaka Station. It just take 1 hour by express bus. The ticket price is $20 for round trip tickets. Very cheep. You should book in advance.
You can get the bus ticket from here
When you stay in hot spring in Japan, we highly recommend you to stay in Japanese Hot Spring Hotel, so-called “Ryokan”. Here is some reasons.
- To find and get to hot spring spa except Ryokan is really difficult for foreigners without help by tour guides
- To find and enjoy super tasty local Japanese food except Ryokan is also difficult for foreigners without help by tour guides
- To wear Yukata, Japanese bathrobe we can only have in Ryokan, is really cool stuff to enjoy Japanese cultures
This time, we choose to stay 1 night at Choraku, one of the most luxury one in Arima. And, fortunately, we could book the sweet room with normal price rate because no body book the sweet room until the end of November. Super!
Here is the room picture. Amazing isn’t it? :)
You can book this hotel from here.
Hot spring in the hotel is also great. One of the interesting hot springs culture in Arima is they enjoy two types of hot springs. One is “Gold hot spring”, and the other is “Silver hot spring”. Gold is the original one, thus, the color looks like gold with lots of minerals, especially iron, while silver one is purely clear because they percolate the gold ones.
Once I and my wife enjoyed both hot spring, went back to the room. Then, the dinner is ready inside the room. The menu of the day is Kyoto-Kaiseki style, which is full-course menu of Japanese tasty food starting from appetizers to desserts. And we ordered Japanese special Sake, Dasai which smoothly fit to the tasty dishes.
Dinner Menu in Choraku
After dinner, we enjoyed outdoor hot springs in the Ryokan. View of nature from the bath room in night time is very calm and beautiful, so, you can deeply relax yourself. Also, warming your body up with hot springs and cooling your head down with out air is the practical way to maintain your body in healthy way which ancient Japanese invented. So, please try. You can realize what I tell you here. After taking bath, we had a massage by specialists in our room. So, our body and mental is fully refreshed. The massage cost is $60 for 60 minutes per a person.
Next morning, I went to the hot spring again, which is my favorite thing. Especially outdoor hot spring in morning time is amazing. Birds around there are signing and caroling with their friends. Amazing! With deep breathe in the bathroom, you can perfectly harmonize yourself to the nature.
Then, after checking out the Ryokan, we visited some of the popular spots in Arima.
Onsen Shrine is very calm place. Here is Google Map Link.
In Onsen Temple pretty close to Onsen Shrine, you can see beautiful Buddhism arts inside.
Here is Google Map Link
And, there is original source of Arima hot spring, and you can drink it :)
Other favorite spots in Arima for us was this home-made beer bar. There not only you can have various home-made craft beer, but also you can have fruit soda made by hot spring water. That was very very tasty. We loved it. Please try.
The entrance gate symbol looks nice :)
Here is the Google Map Link for this bar.
This is all about Arima Onsen.