Going to Japan in April/May for 10 days thanks to the YYZ Deals deal Toronto-Tokyo, Osaka-Taipei & Taipei-Toronto
Made reservations for a hotel in Tokyo for 4 nights and one in Kyoto for 4. Plan to book hotels in Osaka (2 nights) and Taipei now. A friend suggested that we should book a hotel for 6 nights in Osaka and do one-day trips to Kyoto, Kobe, Nara, Himeji and Hiroshima instead of staying in Kyoto and then moving to Osaka. She says that there is not much to see/do/experience in Kyoto after sunset. Would you agree?

I stayed in Kyoto and did the day trips to Osaka, Hiroshima and Nara. I would say that there's still things to see in Kyoto at night. May not be "night life" but there's temples to see at night, the Pontocho area for food and bars and just walking around in general. You can also see Osaka and Hiroshima at night and still get trains back to Kyoto. I didn't go to Kobe.
Overall, I enjoyed the scenery in Kyoto more than Osaka and was glad we spent more time there. Osaka is a city like Tokyo but Kyoto is different altogether.

I actually did the opposite as at the time accommodation turned out to be cheaper in Osaka. But yeah, Kyoto is definitely worth exploring at night. There are certain neighbourhoods that are all lit up, which makes for great photography.

Thanks for your posts, Laura and Alison. Now that we have decided to stay 6 nights in Kyoto and not in Osaka (we fly ou from Osaka though), we will start planning the day trips from Tokyo and Kyoto. Do you suggest that we purchase the one-week JR Pass to save on travel from Tokyo - Kyoto - Osaka airport and all other shorter and longer trips from Tokyo and Kyoto? I would love to visit Hiroshima!

Katerina yes for sure buy the pass. I think there is an online calculator somewhere that shows the cost comparison per trip vs buying the pass.
I flew into Osaka, took the train to stay in Kyoto then took trips to Nara, Hiroshima and Osaka day trips. Then we took the train to Hakone for one night then on to Tokyo. Lmk if you want some itinerary suggestions for these places.

Laura Ditto that. My understanding is that you’ll probably be close to break even just doing both ways of Tokyo to Osaka/Kyoto.
If you go to Hiroshima, I definitely recommend also checking out Miyajima which is nearby. That was easily my favourite destination in Japan. Make sure you go to the Daisho-In temple.

That’s weird, we had the complete opposite experience, but I guess it depends what you like. We loved Kyoto way more than Osaka. If you’ve never been to Kyoto I think it’s worth more than just a day trip- lots of castles, temples and natural scenery. I’m not into nightlife so Osaka didn’t do much for me. Kobe is famous for the beef but not a whole lot to do there- I would suggest switching it out for Mt Koya- if you have a rail pass your transport there is included (I think)

Yes Mt. Koya is incredible!

Yes, stay all nights in Kyoto and do day trips from there. Loved Kyoto. Plenty to do at night there. Can see Osaka at night then train it back to Kyoto. I think train was about a 35 minute ride. Stay east side of the river in old Kyoto.

Agree with the above, Osaka is fine for a couple of nights, but I enjoyed Kyoto way more.

If you like nightlife I would stay Osaka near Dotonbori, day trips to Kyoto, Nara, etc. Have a look at the Japan Rail pass, sounds like you would save $ there from frequent trips

I spent time in Kobe and took the bullet train to Kyoto as a day trip.

Emily Kerr

Beena
We stayed in Osaka with day trips to Kyoto, Nara, Kobe and Hiroshima . Bought the Jaoan railway pass in canada

I went to Japan for 2 weeks back in April 2017. We went to Tokyo, Kanazawa, Takayama, Kyoto & Osaka. You can read about it on my travel blog. I also went back in Oct 2012 where we stayed in Osaka and did a day trip to Nara & Kyoto. Depends on what you want to do. The JR Pass is a saviour and the bullet trains can get you anywhere you want real fast (Kyoto - Osaka - 14 minutes - Almost didnt finish my bento box before getting off). Nara definitely can be covered in a daytrip. http://boketto.rosannau.com/
BOKETTO.ROSANNAU.COM
boketto with ro

Didnt go to Osaka because we heard it was mostly shopping. There are a lot of interesting sites to see around Kyoto. Nara, Arashiyama, so many temples. There are also temples that are lighted up at night. Also some temples have "flea market days" and they have super interesting and cheap souvenirs to bring home. We did find that shops close at around 9 pm but we try to find things we can do at night like visit the temples or stay longer at fushimi inari. We didn't get a railpass but relied on local rails and buses -we werent tied to any one system. Mind you the transit system was a bit complicated (multiple systems of buses and trains ...Figuring that out was part of the fun!)

Following** will be there March/April

Are you back, Aria? How was it?

Katerina yes! It was really good
message me if you have any questions

Will also be there Apr 2018. Will the cherry blossoms be over by then?

We will be in Tokyo on the 26th of April, do not expect to see the cherries in full bloom
I guess the beginning of April is the perfect time.

My husband Ljubenco Belazelkoski and I really appreciate your suggestions & tips! THANK YOU!!! Like most of you, we are not into shopping & night life (not at all) so that was not the reason why we asked for your opinion on the dilemma: Stay in Osaka or stay in Kyoto for the 6 days we have for that region. We want to save us the trouble of changing hotels too often, especially since Kyoto and Osaka are so close. To be honest, it was not easy to find a decent hotel in Kyoto (with a shower!!!) for a reasonable price. The availability of accommodation and "the value for the money" in Osaka seems much better, but I guess there is a reason for that. Kyoto seems to be the highlight of everyone's trip to Japan
I assume that other "must-visit-cities" in the region are equally accessible from both Osaka and Kyoto (same distance even). It seems that almost everyone agrees that we should purchase the railway pass since we will be on the train a lot. One more thing: As mentioned, we are leaving Japan from Osaka so if we stay in Kyoto, we would need to get to the Osaka airport from Kyoto. With the well-developed railways system, we hope that this would not be a hustle. Right?

Katerina not at all. The trains between these two places are frequent and best of all, ON TIME.

Oh and you guys are going at a really good time to see the sakura / cherry blossoms!

Mika, it seems we re too late for the Sakura. Maybe next time

We did 4 nights in Kyoto and 2 nights in Osaka, did day trips to Nara, Himeji and Hiroshima from Osaka. Shorter distance which allow us to enjoy Osaka at night. We personally really love Kyoto and found Osaka too city like for us.

Thanks Rebecca! That's exactly what we planned to do. How did you manage to visit Nara, Himeji and Hiroshima while in Osaka? Is Hiroshima a whole-day trip? How long is the trip to Hiroshima? Was it worth it? One more thing: Did you purchase the JR pass? We do not have to go back to Toky since we fly to Taipei from Osaka.

Hi Katerina, We did Himeji on the first day we arrived in Osaka (had an early start from Kyoto), and we didn't go into the castle. We were able to come back to Osaka and visited their Aquarium (the best aquarium we've ever been). Sorry my mistake, I thought we did Nara from Osaka, but looking back at the itinerary we actually did it from Kyoto. It was a whole day's trip. Feeding the deer was the highlight! I think 3 full days in Kyoto was enough to see all the sights in Kyoto and the last day trip to Nara was a good change of scenery.
We did purchase the JR pass as it allowed us to be more flexible and we thought it was well worth the money. We purchased the pass online. Hiroshima takes a whole day to visit and I highly recommend it. Start your day early, it's about 3.5 hours from Osaka If I remember correctly. It was a sobering experience visiting the memorial sites and museum. We had lunch at Okonomimura, which is a building full of okonomiyaki vendors (highly recommend it!) There is a loop bus in Hiroshima which takes you to all the tourist sights (okonomimura included), it's free with the JR pass. We also visited the Miyajima tides/Torii gate from Hiroshima. The ferry ride from Hiroshima to Miyajima is also included in the JR pass for free.
Hope you enjoy your trip! We loved Japan and can't wait to go back again!

This was our photo in Kiyumizudera temple in Kyoto. Osaka is best for enjoying an active night life. But in Kyoto, I strongly suggest spending at least one night there. Soak in the cultural side of Japan in Kyoto by going around temples and staying at least one night in a Ryokan -- the ones with an in house onsen (hot spring) and kaiseki (multiple course meal with local ingredients) like Gion Hatanaka are especially wonderful.

Darren
Anyone have an opinion on Tokyo vs. Osaka? Are they even cities that can be compared? To get a feel different from Kyoto while in Japan.

Depends on how much time you're spending in Japan, how much you want to soak in and what you travel for. Osaka is a great hub for seeing a lot of places nearby like Nara and Kyoto (plus Hiroshima but it's a bit farther). Tokyo has a lot of small districts with distinct characters and whatever you're into, I'm sure you'll find something to do. I personally love tokyo for the gadgets, photography stuff and food! Don't forget to check out some michelin star restaurants that are super reasonably priced too!

Darrenh cities r different. Go to Japanese bars in Rapongi hill. Heat the fish market has moved

Mika thanks! I feel like Kyoko and Tokyo will be great homebases for me. I appreciate the post.

Definitely go to the bamboo forest (Kyoto) later in the day/early evening. The lighting is different and there are WAY less crowds! I preferred Tokyo to Osaka. I was in Japan for a month a half and stayed in Tokyo 4 different times - a different area each time. Hiroshima is also a really nice place - the okonomyaki is delicious there! So much to see and do in Japan, really - you’re sure to enjoy everywhere you go. Beautiful country!

Mary i second this!!

Lots to do in Kyoto. Definitely worth spending a few days there. There’s beautiful nighttime tours you can take plus all the markets whereas Osaka is much more industrial based.

Shannon Avery

I agree! Kyoto is more old school Japan; temples etc. Tokyo and Osaka are my favourite especially for going out, eating, shopping etc. Met so many cool people in both cities and found a ton of amazing little bars as well. spend as much time in Tokyo and Osaka as you can!

My fav is Kyoto vs Osaka and I stayed 3 days in each city. I would recommend that you stay near the Kyoto train station as there is a special tourist Raku buses (hop-on-off) that take you to all the major highlights in the city. You can consider staying at PIECE HOSTEL KYOTO. There is much to see in Kyoto. The train station itself is an architectural marvel with lots of shopping & restaurants. There is the famous Golden Pavilion (Kinkakuji), UNESCO heritage temples, Kiyomizu-dera, Arashimaya area famous Bamboo forest with temples, Gion (geisha) district, Nishijin Textile Centre with free kimono shows & souvenirs & imperial castles.

Kyoto Japan Station

Haruka LTD Express

Raku Bus map & routes

You should check out Miyajima island near Hiroshima. It is a top scenic spot in Japan with its famous Torii gate

13th century Nishiki market is also a must Visit Kyoto for food & souvenirs

Cheryl Li, Miyajima and Nishiki Market are on our list
Thanks!!!

My boyfriend and I did Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, Hiroshima, Fukuoka, and Tokyo less than a month ago (in that order). We bought the Sanyo-Sanin JR pass which allowed us to travel between all the above except Tokyo (we flew from Fukuoka back to Tokyo). I would highly recommend the JR pass if you're going to a lot of places. Hiroshima is a full day trip and about an hour and a half on the bullet train from Osaka. Nara is easier to get to from Kyoto than Osaka, though it looks equidistant on a map. We absolutely loved Kyoto and would have loved to spend more time there! We stayed in a traditional tatami wood house which was a guest house with 4-5 private rooms and shared shower and bathroom facilities - it was a wonderful place to stay! Osaka was nice but like everyone above has said, it's more of a city. We got to catch the fall colours while we were in Japan and Kyoto gave us the perfect opportunity to catch the beautiful scenery. Have a great time!

WOW!!!! You guys are incredible!!! THANKS a TON! We decided to extend our stay in Kyoto from 4 to 6 nights instead of moving to Osaka for the last 2 nights (weekend tariffs are really high!) and loose precious time in changing hotels. It is so convenient that Kyoto and Osaka are so close since we fly to Taipei from Osaka. We booked The Hedistar Hotel Kyoto Nijo (in Kyoto, of course) and Sotetsu Fresa Inn Nihombashi-Kayabacho in Tokyo. Will follow your suggestions for the day-trips from Tokyo and Kyoto as well as the tips for the best way to commute between places we plan to see during this 10-day trip to Japan. Cannot wait for April to come

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