Located 5 minutes walk from Hankyu Nishinomiya Kitaguchi station (15 mins from Osaka Umeda by rapid express, about 25 from Kobe) you can spend a whole day looking through this amazing shrine to the Japanese religion of shopping.

Footfall on the opening day was rumored to be over 50,000 people and it continues to be crowded at weekends and on holidays. Well worth checking out as a tourist attraction in its own right!

More photos

There are also many other hotels and spas which you can visit as a guest without having to stay in the hotel. Just stroll in and the rates for the baths will be posted on the ubiquitous vending machines in the lobby.

If you fancy spending the night then check out the list of hotels in Arima and make your booking online. Holidays and weekends will of course be more expensive and crowded.

Directions

By Train from Kobe

From Sannomiya or Shin-Kobe Station, take the subway to Tanigami Station (10 minutes, 520 yen from Sannomiya; 8 minutes, 350 yen from Shin-Kobe). Then, take the Kobe Railways Arima Line to Arima Onsen Station with one transfer at Arimaguchi Station (15 minutes, 370 yen).

By Bus from Osaka or Kobe

Buses to Arima Onsen leave from Osaka Station (60 minutes, 1330 yen one way) and Shin-Osaka Station (50 minutes, 1200 yen) and from Shin-Kobe Station (50 minutes, 750 yen) and Sannomiya Bus Terminal (30 minutes, 750 yen).

By Cablecar and Ropeway via Mount Rokko

From Sannomiya Station, take the Hankyu Kobe Line to Rokko Station (7 minutes, 180 yen). From Rokko Station, take the Rokko Cablecar up to Mount Rokko (10 minutes, 570 yen one way, 1000 yen round trip).

From the cablecar’s top station, take the circular bus line to the top station of the Rokko Arima Ropeway (10 minutes, 250 yen), which brings you down to Arima Onsen (12 minutes, 980 yen one way, 1770 yen round trip).

If you access Arima Onsen via Mount Rokko, make sure to purchase the “Rokko Arima Katamichi Joshaken” ticket, which provides a one way trip between Rokko Station and Arima Onsen using cablecar, bus and ropeway plus unlimited use of the circular bus line on Mount Rokko for 1700 yen.

A Japanese kind of day, morningu, noon and nighto.

Sometimes when you’re in Kyoto, you’ve just got to go the whole hog (not literally, I was mostly vegetarian today) and do the yu-dofu thing. Every conceivable permeatation of tofu ever conceivable from yuzu-dofu to age-dofu, through to yuba and my utter favourite, goma-dofu.

If culinary terminology was never your strong point, yuu-dofu is tofu served as a kind of stew in a clear broth. Brrrroth sounds so much better when one rrrrolls one’s Rrrrs. Yuzu is a divine Japanese citrus fruit (I mean, citrrrrus frrrruit!), while age-dofu (pronounced “a-gay”, haha) is sweet fried tofu. Yuba is kind of like the skin of custard that you either love or loathe, but in the case of tofu you’ll love it. And goma-dofu is sesame tofu, which is so deliciously beyond words that there are no words to describe it, hence the lack of words here.

Such tofu-ness can be indulged upon in abundance in La Kyot, but we plumped for the area around Kita Tenmangu, oh la la.

Now is all about the momiji maple trees, and their amber splendour. This is what we tenderly refer to as ‘kouyou’ （紅葉でしょ）. The other day we mosied on down to Kibune, which is well worth the trip, if only for the ‘momiji tunnel’. This is where, at night, the bogey man plays a trick on you and turns out all the lights on the train…a five-second gap in pitch dark where everyone gasps expecting Dr. Who to appear in a flash of lightning, but instead…a mass of illuminated tiny red leaves in 360 degree panama vision. It’s better than Disney Land, yes, and I should co co. Kibune itself is also a copper-hued treat, except for the parasols unstrategically placed in the middle of the river. What was that all about? I, for one, quite fancied wading through the icy water for a nice sit down under one of them.

But today we ventured to an off-the-beaten-track temple along the same train track as Kibune. Something irresistably soothing about sitting and watching a rock garden on a rickety wooden veranda while it’s raining, watching the koi carp in the pond singing in the rain, dancing in and out of the raindrops. Drinking matcha green tea and nibbling wagashi sweets. Beam me up, Scottie. 

This morning, I randomly found myself in Kyoto.

It dawned on me that living in the heart Osaka can sometimes deprive a boy of all things traditionally Japanese, so in a bid to get to the heart of the Japanese heart, I randomly found myself in the heart of a plum blossom viewing festival being held at kitano Tenmangu Shrine.

Is there some kind of weird repetition thing going on here or something?

Is there some kind of weird repetition thing going on here or something?

Anyway.

At the risk of calling me a big flower, it was absolutely beautiful.  Pastel hues blossoming right, left and centre. There was even an ikebana flower arranging contest. The whole thing was completely dripping with the very essence of the Japanese ‘wa’, or harmony. Anyone who knows me, knows I am utterly obessed with this. It’s what makes Japan so incredibly special.

After scoffing a hot bowl of ramen noodles, I braved it on the bus back to the station. What another quintessentially Kyoto experience. For a country with such an obsessive fettish with mobile phones, not a single one in sight! And the bus was rammed like sheep (no rams, mind). Is that what you call patience or saving Kyoto face? So different from Osaka! (Keitai a-go go!) To ham up the whole ‘wa’ thing even more, the entire bus was effectively a calligraphy exhibition on wheels. Every available inch of wall space was taken up with the local primary school’s efforts at kanji practice. Amazing! Not just yer mundane slogans like ‘Rice balls going cheap at yer local 7-11′, but rather completey adorable things like 「温かい心」, 「新風」 and 「希望」.

Hurrah for the ‘wa’, where would we be without it?

“Once you’ve seen one temple, you’ve seen them all”, lament many cynics.

 Well I challenge you to a duel! 

Yesterday, me and my delicious friend Lester went on a temple-hopping mission to the nether regions of Kyoto.

First up was the sleepy little town of Obaku surrounded by lush emerald greenery, home of Manpuku-ji, a Chinese-style temple in the Zen tradition. Does that sound like a contradiction in terms, Chinese Zen? Apparently not, and they’re seemingly proud of it.

As far as I was aware, manpuku means full stomach in Japanese, so I was wondering what a ‘full stomach temple’ could imply. Free brown rice and tofu upon entry per chance? Ooops, tut tut, silly me. The correct translation is ten-thousand fold happiness Zen temple, which is far more appealing, let’s face it.

Ponder the raked stone garden. No pebble out of place, no stone left unturned. Aaah, beautiful tranquility at its best. There’s something about those places that just smells of inner peace. Or is it just the incense?

A little further down the (train) track is the greater-spotted Uji. Uji-me-flip!

What’s all the hype about? 

Reach for your nearest ten yen coin, and you’ll see a temple on the back. I think you’ll find that’s Byoudou-in, or in English Temple of Equanimity. Don’t you just seriously love the names they come up with?

Anyone prosaic enough to believe that they’ve seen all temples without seeing this one should think again. This is an indescribable treat! Not only the stunning temple itself, but also the museum where you can see a splendid array of wood-carved offering Goddesses. In a word: phenomenal.

My humble advice: make a beeline, quick sharp!

Getting there from Osaka: Take the Keihan train from Yodoyabashi and change at Chushojima to the Uji Line. Get off at Obaku for Manpuku-ji, and ride to the end of the line to Uji for Byoudou-in.

Ninjas

Iga was originally one of the centers of education and development of the Ninjas err… Ninjas.

UPDATE: During the annual Ninja festival from April 1 – May 6 you can get a free ride on the trains if you’re dressed as a Ninja! (more info)

There is a small museum, an original Ninja house which has all of the special trapdoors, hidey places and secret passages you’d expect as well as demonstrators who kindly give you explanations in English via pull down menus!

You can hire a ninja costume if you like and prance about (color coded blue for boys, red for girls), and watch a ninja show which demonstrates the ninja weapons like swords and shirikens or throwing stars – you can even have a go yourself after the show and chuck a couple of them (but only at a wall).

The show is pretty funny and comes complete with “Kepow” sound effects during the demonstration fights.

The museum is small but has a decent amount of information in English. You can see original weapons such as egg bombs, special lamps and encryption systems used to transmit messages. Pretty cool stuff!

Haiku

On the other hand for lovers of the beautiful Japanese poetry called Haiku you can make a pilgrimage to the birthplace and residence of master Matsuo Basho.

The house is fairly small but inside has a collection of his family’s possessions and a small hut out back which is where he used to compose. The outside of the house looks like it’s been renovated but inside remains somewhat untouched.

There are also a couple of associated museums and you can get a discount ticket at any of them to all three. The museums hold some of his original writings and other bits of his collections.

There is also a massive haiku competition held each year in Iga which you can enter in English.

Getting there

Iga Ueno is not so easy to reach by public transport. The easiest way is from Nara, which has direct trains on the JR Kasuga line, or from Nagoya on the same line. You may also have to change at Kamo onto a diesel powered local one carriage special.

You can also get trains from Kyoto and Osaka on the JR lines but need a couple of changes. You can get to Nara from Osaka on the Kintesu line out of Namba.

From Kyoto:

1) Take the JR Nara Line from Kyoto to Kizu (35 minutes by rapid train)
2) Take the JR Kansai Line from Kizu to Kamo (5 minutes)
3) Continue along the JR Kansai Line from Kamo to Iga-Ueno (35 minutes)
4) Take the Kintetsu Iga Line from Iga-Ueno to Ueno-shi (5 minutes)

From Osaka:
1) Kintestu Kansai line from Namba to Nara.
2) Arrive at Nara, walk about 15 minutes to the JR station.
3) As 2 above.

Once you get to the JR station in Iga you can take the bus or taxi into town or change and take the Kintestu line to the Ueno Shi station.