Japan Rail Pass NowAustralia's No.1 Choice
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Japan Rail Pass NowAustralia's No.1 Choice
Kyoto Station surprises people. You arrive expecting something in keeping with a thousand year old capital and walk into a vast steel and glass building from 1997, fifteen storeys high with an atrium you could fit an aircraft in. It is a genuinely striking piece of architecture and nothing like the city around it.
More to the point, it is where almost every Kyoto trip begins and ends.
Kyoto is not a train city. The subway is only two lines and most of the famous temples are nowhere near either of them. Kiyomizudera, Ginkakuji, Kinkakuji and the rest are reached by city bus, and the main bus terminal sits directly outside the station’s north side.
This is worth planning around. Your rail pass does not cover Kyoto city buses, so you will be paying for those separately or tapping an IC card. Buses get very full in spring and autumn, and the route from the station to the eastern temples is the busiest in the city.
Your Japan Rail Pass covers the Shinkansen in and out, the Nara line to Fushimi Inari, the Sagano line to Arashiyama and the JR line across to Osaka. That is a useful amount of Kyoto, and it means two of the three most visited sights are reachable on the pass alone.
It does not cover the subway, the city buses or the Kintetsu line. The ticket office is on the central concourse and tends to be busiest between 9am and 11am.
The Shinkansen platforms are at the southern end, on the Hachijo side, behind their own gates. The main concourse and the bus terminal are on the northern Karasuma side. Walking between the two takes five to ten minutes.
The building itself is worth ten minutes of your time if you have them. There is a long escalator run up to a rooftop terrace with a view over the city, and the Skyway walkway crosses the atrium high above the concourse. Both are free.
There is an Isetan department store inside the station with a food hall in the basement, which is one of the better places in Kyoto to buy an ekiben or something for the train. The ramen floor on level ten gathers shops from around the country.
Kyoto’s own station bento often feature regional things like saba sushi or yuba. They are a step up from the usual.
Coin lockers are plentiful but Kyoto is a city where they genuinely run out, especially in cherry blossom season and in November. There is a staffed baggage room, and several forwarding counters that will send a case on to your next hotel.
A lot of visitors arriving from Tokyo send their big case straight to their Kyoto hotel and travel with a day bag, which avoids dragging luggage through the temples.
If you are booking individual journeys rather than using a pass, these are the routes that start here.
And the longer route guides, with times, seat tips and what to see when you arrive:
Not really. Kyoto Tower and the Higashi Honganji temple are close, but the famous sights are spread across the eastern and northern edges of the city and need a bus or a train.
Rarely. The Shinkansen takes about fifteen minutes and the JR special rapid takes about thirty for a fraction of the price. If you have a rail pass both are free, so take whichever leaves first.
Take the JR Sagano line from Kyoto Station to Saga-Arashiyama, about fifteen minutes and covered by the pass.
Ensure you get the most out of your trip to the land of the rising sun with our comprehensive 249-page Japan Travel Guide.