Tocen Goshoboh — Hotel in Kobe

The first time we visited Arima Onsen (10 yrs ago!) we stayed at one of the many large hotels higher up on the hillside. This time we chose a boutique ryokan, with a location better suited to walking around town. Tocen Goshoboh is a lovely historical Ryokan. The decor is somewhat European even, with lots of interesting and quirky decorative items displayed in the hallways and dining rooms. The ryokan is perfectly located in the centre of Arima Onsen town, only a short walk from the train station. The ryokan has 20 rooms, however it is set out over a fairly expansive structure so seems larger than that. There appear to be a few dining rooms, and the staff-to-guest ratio is high (excellent service and the staff were absolutely lovely!). Dinner in the formal dining room was beautiful - both the food and the setting. The rooms are pretty large, with separate areas within each room. The lighting is pretty dim though, especially with all the dark wood. Wifi was weak. The room walls are also ultra-thin, and we could hear the sounds and conversations of our neighbours. Also, there are a lot of stairs in the sprawling ryokan - we were on the 4th or 5th floor of the building, so take note if you are elderly, or have bad knees. Re. the onsen, note that the Male and Female onsen is connected, it was more like 1 onsen separated by a wooden fence - this is supposedly to allow M and F friends and family to be able to interact with each other. You can see under and over the fence (we ended up crouching in a corner). 1 other comment: I was woken up in the middle of the night by some soft sounds, and realised the TV had come on, luckily at a low volume. We had not touched the TV or remote at all. My guess is that a previous guest had set the TV timer (but why have it come on on past midnight..). Or else the walls were so thin that a neighbour's remote for their TV actually switched on our TV (although I was pretty sure our neighbour had gone to bed before me). Anway, it did not bother me, just something that puzzles me...

If you are looking for the true Onsen experience this is it for you. The staff are incredible and the experience is completely authentic. Some notes worth sharing after our 3 night stay:|1. I read beforehand people not happy about how creaky the floors are/noise levels in the hotel. It is a hotel originally built in the 12th century. I went in expecting that, so it was not a problem whatsoever. This is not a modern hotel. Although for such an old building, it felt very up to date.|2. The onsen was a great experience, and the most authentic onsen we stayed at in Japan over a 17 day period.|3. The dinner is a must for 1 of the nights there. Perhaps more, as restaurants all close very early in Arima Onsen, and there are no bars open anywhere at night. It is a very sleepy town, so getting dinner at the hotel saves you some trouble, and it is amazing.|4. The breakfast is not great for foreigners. We had it 3 mornings. Bit tip, we did not realize, is that you can ask for a "western" breakfast. The hotel asked us the final morning and we nodded YES. It was more to our liking. If you did 3 mornings, I would do the traditional once, and western the other 2 times.|5. I would probably have not stayed longer than 2 nights at this time of year. I think further in the spring/summer 3 nights would have worked with more going on.|6. The town is so cute. Completely met expectations. Very few western tourists, mostly local tourists on weekends. The gondola to Mt Rokko was not worth it at this time of year. I would say probably not a good place to go until May. Most of the attractions up there for a family were not in operation unfortunately.|7. Big shoutout to the staff to help with transporting our luggage to our next destination. Language barrier was a bit challenging, but we all figured things out and everything...

Over priced with poor service. There was no welcoming reception. The first thing they asked me was to pay bath tax. The staff wasn’t asking me to sit down or offering me a cup of tea, instead, they asked me to pay the bath tax immediately standing in front the cashier. But some other customers were being treated more nicely. We’ve drove a long way to there, felt tired and very look forward to this ryokan because of its long history. However, the coldness and discrimination of the staff made us uncomfortable.

The room was noise. You can hear the talking and walking noise from your neighbours or upstairs. The tatami floor was uneven. There was something, probably from the last guest, left in toilet area.

The public onsen looked old and dirty. Lack of amenities. Men and women onsen separated with one low partition. For ladies have to be careful.

The quality of dinner was below average and the ingredients were not fresh. There was a cook grilling Kobe beef in teppanyaki style in the restaurant. I was so looking forward to it. However, it turned out the beef was very chewy and the portions were so little. That was the worst Kobe beef I’ve ever had. And the waiter looked tired to serve.

I wanted to stay for 2 nights, but there was no room available for the second night. So I had to choose another ryokan in the same area. I felt lucky I didn’t stay one more night there eventually. The ryokan for the second night was far more better with lower price.

I’ve stayed more than 40+ hotels or ryokans all over Japan. I always believe Japan has great hospitality. However, this ryokan is one of the worst. Definitely won’t...