Have you seen this before?

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3558.html

You can easily do a day trip to Arima and even stop off in Kobe for a late Kobe steak lunch from one of the restaurants surrounding the Sannomiya station in Kobe. Lots of shopping in that area too!

Aloha!

My 24 yo daughter and I took a daytrip from northern Osaka to Arima Onsen in early July. We traveled on a variety of railways and subways through Kobe to Arima Guchi and eventually Arima Onsen. I think that there were about 5 or 6 transfers, so the pace was fairly brisk. We used hyperdia.com to plan our route.

Our schedule that day did not permit including a Mt. Rokko cable car ride although I bet that would have been fun.

We went to Gin No Yu, one of the two public baths. Both of those baths are in very easy walking distance of the train station.

It is easy to do this as a day trip from Osaka.

Thanks so much for the tips! HT I had looked at the site but the choices were overwhelming - were looking to see if anyone had any personal experiences.

We are trying to figure out whether to splurge for an Arima area ryokan or just daytrip.

On a related note, and good area guides for Osaka? We plan on travelling light so we don't want to haul around a Lonely Planet or (gasp) Fodor's.