Day Trip – Tokyo – Kyoto/Osaka

8 comments

1. absolutely not. This is ridiculous. lmao. You’re going to spend hours just traveling back and forth

   I can’t believe how intricate your planning is. I’ve learned that planning like that never works. You may like some thing more and stay there more or less and so on and so on. better to be a little bit more flexible.

   I’m doing two nights in Kyoto in a few days with a day trip to Osaka and that’s not even enough!! I’m stressed on what I want to see, which is why your itinerary is absolutely stressful haha bruh

2. Yeah no. Here in Osaka now. The lines at each destination are longer than your intended duration. Sorry

3. You want to visit both Kyoto and Osaka on the same day? Sounds really tough and hard.
   It takes about 2.1 hours from Tokyo to Kyoto when you take the fastest bullet train, Nozomi super express. You need to buy a ticket since you can NOT take the one with JR pass.

   Your schedule is quite tight. If you can move around most efficiently and never get lost, it’ll be possible, however you need much more time to move around, in my opinion. You only have about 30 minutes at every place.

   Edit: I made a typo, sorry.

4. This is absolutely not doable. I was there last week and you cannot do both Kyoto and Osaka in the same day. You might be able to get away with Kyoto in one day, but I did two days in Osaka and wasn’t able to see HALF of what I wanted to. Ended up seeing Dotonbori and USJ, while completely missing out on Shinsekai and Osaka Castle due to lack of time. If you want to see Kyoto and Osaka, you have to actually stay there for multiple days (I recommend staying in Osaka and then taking the train up to Kyoto, as most tourist spots in Kyoto close at 5 and the nightlife in Osaka is better)
   While technically this plan is physically possible, you’d essentially be getting to the sites, taking a picture, then immediately leaving to have time to get everywhere.

   Also, your plan for Kyoto being Fushimi Inari is cool and all but it since it takes an average of 2 hours to hike up, you’d have to rush it like a marathon, which is very difficult to do if it’s crowded, so unless you’re wanting to see the Tori Gate tunnel and skip the actual shrine, then you’d be better off skipping Kyoto entirely and doing Osaka exclusively. Personally, I’d recommend Kiyomizu-dera over Fushimi Inari but like I said, Kyoto stuff closes really early so it’s not realistic to do both cities in the same day.

   And lastly, unless you’re taking the more expensive Nozomi shinkansen (which would get you back into Tokyo around 11:15 if you leave at 9) then you’d be getting back to Tokyo late. As in, either close to or after the last train. So you might, on top of running around all day trying to get to all your locations, be stuck walking back to your Tokyo hotel at 1 in the morning. If you’re close to Tokyo station, not a big problem. If you’re in any other area like Shinjuku or Shibuya? You’re either walking or going to a love hotel or Internet cafe for the night

   TLDR: This plan isn’t realistic. To see Kyoto AND Osaka you kind of have to stay there multiple days. You could easily do just your Kyoto plans in one day, and MAYBE just the Osaka plans if you’re lucky, but you absolutely can not do both in one day

5. Why are you unable to spend the night in either Kyoto or Osaka? It seems like a lot of travel time for not a great and a very rushed experience in my opinion.

6. I would highly advise against making Osaka or Kyoto a day trip from Tokyo. You could ostensibly see one or two things in Kyoto or one or two things in Osaka, but it’ll be a crazy hectic schedule and won’t be worth it. If you’re doing a mainly Tokyo trip, stay in that area. Do a Osaka/Kyoto trip some other time.

7. I just spent the last week(ish) in Osaka/Kyoto (our 2nd time to both cities)

   Our first trip in early 2018 we did 3 nights in Osaka (primarily around doing 1 day in Kobe, 1 day outlet shopping, 1 day Nara/Osaka) and we did a day trip to Kyoto from Tokyo. We were able to “hit” all the big name spots but was really a blur..

   This go around we spent 6 nights in Osaka with the time split half and half between Osaka/Kyoto (stayed at Osaka station), biggest difference is everything is packed..
   Kiyomizu temple and the surrounding were jammed with people on a Saturday in the pouring rain… it was so bad that we shifted our plans for the Fushimi Inari Shrine and Arashiyama to Monday ( they were both quite busy with a ton of people and trains to get to/from were jammed)

   Dotonburi on a Wednesday evening was jammed body to body..

   What I really noticed was a lot of non-English (American) tourists lots of Australian/British accents, French and Germans speaking their native languages as well this was not something I noticed in 2018, I suppose some combination of Cherry Blossoms, post-pandemic hangover, Japan reopening, or the interest generated by the Olympics has really increased the number of people out and about, Tokyo felt like a zoo and same as Osaka, Kyoto was maybe 10% less busy.

   I am currently in Hiroshima and other than Miyojima being “busyish” it’s not bad here.

   Would not recommend commuting back and forth to either Osaka/Kyoto on your trip. With 8.5 days just pick 1 or 2 cities and split your time that way.

8. If you already decided to do it, why not use a night bus to arrive at Osaka in the early morning and leave around 10-11PM?