We went to Kyoto, Takayama, and Osaka Japan. These are what we did. – Part 1

We spent 9 days at Kansai area and Takayama Japan. Here is the sharing of our trip.

Pre-trip preparation:

In order to getting the best out of the trip, the pre-trip preparation is very important. We have done the following to cut cost:

1. Purchase SIM card: It is important to get a SIM card so that you can use maps, check train ticket fare, and also train schedule wherever you go.
2. Purchase Takayama-Hokuriku area tourist pass (14,000 yen): This pass covers the longest travel distance of our trip, i.e. between Kyoto and Takayama. In addition, the local loop train in Osaka, between Kansai airport and Kyoto, and also local buses between Takayama and Shirakawa-go are also included.
3. Purchase Universal Studio entry ticket and express pass: Ever since Universal Studio Japan has Harry Potter section, the theme park becomes very crowded. Hence, you must get express pass so that you can really enjoy in the theme park.

Other preparations we have done are also discussed here.

Day 1: Kansai airport to Kyoto (+ Fushimi Inari)

We arrived at Kansai airport quite early in the morning. So we decided to activate our Takayama-Hokuriku area tourist pass at Kansai airport. The pass is only valid for 5 days, but our trip is 9 days. After careful planning and calculation, it is best for us to only use the pass from day 4 to day 9. We talked to the staff. We were told that we are allowed to do so. But once the date is stated on the pass, we cannot change anymore. So advance planning is very important.

We also bought 1-day Kansai area pass for 2300 yen. It includes the Haruka train ticket from Kansai airport to Kyoto station, and also some JR train stations nearby Kyoto.

We arrived at Hotel Keihan Kyoto Grande, which is just opposite Kyoto station, at least 1 hour earlier than the check-in time. The hotel staffs could not do early check-in for us, but they are kind enough to allow us to leave our luggage bags there so that we can go for a short walk around the area.

After checked-in to the hotel, we decided to make good use of our Kansai area pass to visit a nearby tourist spot, i.e. Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine.

We did not pay to enter the shrine. However, the surrounding area is already very big to walk. There is also a short row of stalls which sell nice Japanese food. There is a path beside the shrine which leads to the top of the mountain behind the shrine. We only managed to walk a short while. The sky was dark. So we decided to turn back. We think that it may take us 1 hour if we follow the path to reach the mountain top.

Day 2: Arashiyama 1 day trip

This is the first time we bought train ticket from the ticketing machine. The ticketing machines in Japan work differently. They only show the fare but not destinations. Therefore, we have to figure out how much it costs to get to the destination ourselves. Luckily we happened to find an app which works just perfectly for this, i.e. Hyperdia. Thanks to Hyperdia, we not only know the train fare but also the train schedule.

When we reached Arashiyama, we straightaway when to purchase one-way ticket for Sagano scenic train. Some people buy two-way tickets. Since there is a JR train line running parallelly with the scenic train, and the fare is cheaper, so we decided to get the one-way scenic train ticket and switch to JR train on our return trip. We saw a mother and son got off the scenic train in between. We reckon there may be walking path which links back to Arashiyama station. This could be another alternative we can consider if we revisit Arashiyama again.

Later of the day we spent most of our time walking around Togetsukyo Bridge area and inside Tenryuji Temple. Togetsukyo bridge view is fantastic and it also links us to the other side of the river. On the other side of the river you can try the Monkey Park. And there are many nice and cosy restaurants too. We had our lunch there. The host is a friendly old uncle. He tried very hard to introduce Japan to us. It would be even better if we could speak a little Japanese.

Tenryuji, on the other hand, is quite a big temple. It is divided into the temple itself and the garden at the back. Tickets are sold separately. By visiting the temple, we started to feel that simple lifestyle and observing and understanding the nature are the two key elements to understand the spirit of Zen.

Such a coincident that at the time of our visit, Arashiyama is having the annual Hanatouro event, i.e. the light-up at night. So we decided to stay at the Sagano bamboo groove area until night time. The view is so different at night. However, due to huge crowds, we did not stay long. Instead, we walked to the Togetsukyo bridge again. It was magnificent.

Since we already knew that we will walk around that area until night time to enjoy the Hanatouro event, we did not arrive at Arashiyama early enough. Because of that, we also did not have enough time to visit other places in Arashiyama. The places we missed include Jojakkoji, Gioji, Saga-Toriimoto presered street, Otagi Nenbutsuji, and Daikakuji. However, those places are not close to the train station. We may need at least 3 hours to cover them all.

See Part 2 here.