Crab season is coming, and it is time to head from Osaka to the Sea of Japan. Hotel Kinparo in Toyooka, Hyogo Prefecture, will start a special plan using two locally landed, tagged matsuba crabs (snow crabs) on Thursday, November 12, 2026, to mark the opening of crab season: “[Local Tagged Matsuba Crab x2] Selected ‘Live Matsuba Crab Zukushi’ 2026.”
The inn shares its roots with Dotonbori’s well-known Kani Doraku, so this looks like a trip to taste the real thing on the spot.
Kani Doraku was born at this inn
Hotel Kinparo is a five-minute drive from the famous hot-spring town of Kinosaki Onsen. Founded in 1934, it makes the most of the scenic Sea of Japan, its own spring “Hiyoriyama Onsen” and local ingredients such as matsuba crab and Tajima beef.
Yoshio Imazu, the founder of Kani Doraku, was the younger brother of the founder of Hiyoriyama Kanko, the company behind the hotel. In 1958 he opened an information office for the hotel near Dotonbori to bring in guests, with a seafood eatery called “Sengokubune” beside it. That was the start of Kani Doraku.
Business was tough at first in the food-obsessed city, but when he devised “kani-suki” hot pot using crab landed in his home region of Tajima, it caught on with Osaka diners and became a huge hit. Kani Doraku opened in Dotonbori in 1962 and has since spread nationwide. Kinparo and Kani Doraku were born as sister companies and have grown together on the local crab.
The claw tag proves it is local — handled in-house from auction to kitchen
Tajima is one of Japan’s top regions for snow crab landings. The snow crab caught here is called “matsuba crab,” and the season is short: November 6 to March 20. The tag on the claw is the mark of a local catch.
The inn says it manages everything in-house, from buying to cooking and serving. Because it is hard to tell from outside how much meat a crab holds, the company’s own auctioneer picks good ones at the morning auction and sends them straight to Kani Doraku, Hotel Kinparo and others. The cooking is led by Shoichi Ueda, who became head chef in 2026. The service of the historic inn, which turns 90, lets you take your time with a view of the Sea of Japan.
The menu: from live whole crab to kani-suki
The dinner is built to let you enjoy the two crabs in several ways.
- Sashimi: five kinds, including live matsuba crab
- Vinegared dish: live matsuba crab, served whole (one crab)
- Main dish: charcoal-grilled live matsuba crab and crab miso baked in the shell
- Hot pot: live matsuba crab kani-suki in a large pot
- Rice: zosui (rice porridge)
An aperitif substitute, small dishes, pickles, seasonal vegetables and fruit are also included. Eating kani-suki from a large pot at the inn that gave rise to Kani Doraku’s “original kani-suki” is surely a draw in itself. Some dishes may change.
After dinner, head to the bath. Hiyoriyama Onsen is also called “fossil water,” rising from strata 20,000 years old, and is said to leave a lasting warmth once your body has heated up.
Stay details
- Plan: [Local Tagged Matsuba Crab x2] Selected “Live Matsuba Crab Zukushi” 2026
- Starts: Thursday, November 12, 2026
- Excluded dates: December 29 – January 13 (crab fishing is on break)
- Inn: Hotel Kinparo (operated by Hiyoriyama Kanko Co., Ltd.), 70 rooms
- Address: 1090 Seto, Toyooka, Hyogo
- Access: about 5 minutes by car from Kinosaki Onsen
- Phone: 0796-28-2111
- Website (Japanese): https://www.kinparo.com/
*Photos show a meal for two.
