Photos: iloverjoa · CC BY 3.0 (1, 5) · Tzuhsun Hsu from Taipei, Taiwan · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Mathias Erhart from Nenzing, Austria · CC BY-SA 2.0 · そらみみ · CC BY-SA 4.0
Arima's Tansan (carbonated) spring was declared drinkable by a national inspection in 1875. Mitsumori Honpo (三津森本舗) on Yumotozaka is credited by Kobe Shimbun with turning the water into the first tansan senbei: thin, crisp wafers that are now sold all over Arima.
Why it's unique
The claim is the origin of a confection: Kobe Shimbun credits Mitsumori Honpo with making the first tansan senbei from Arima's carbonated spring water. It is an origin story told by local press, with no official Mitsumori site, so confidence is modest.
What you can do here is taste both halves of the story within a few minutes' walk: the spring itself, from a tap, and the wafer it gave rise to.
Before you go
The spring head is a short walk up from the town centre, at 18.3°C, with a tap you can drink from; it tastes faintly of iron and fizz.
The first wafers came out thick and dull, and the founder kept thinning them until they were 9 cm across and 1 mm thick, which is still the standard. Buy the broken ones (われせん) in bags, which is what residents do. Arima Senbei Honpo nearby also runs walk-in factory viewing.
