Ideas on how to plan 6 days starting in Osaka, Japan
 

Hi Everyone,
we are coming to Osaka in early October and have 6 days before flying to Seoul. Brief background: we are quite mobile but hate to do more that 100 steps up or down stairs at a time, retired, love nature, cities, food and culture, visited Tokyo over 10 years ago and stayed there for 4 days and also spent just 1 day in Kyoto. Loved both Tokyo and Kyoto. Would lIke to spend more time in Kyoto.

I would love to hear suggestions on the 6 days that we will have. Itinerary, sites, transportation, duration? We are not tied up to Osaka to fly to Seoul and may fly from any other place.
Thank you and hope to hear suggestions!

Michael

Your post is very broad, generic, and doesn't give a feel for why you are interested in visiting Japan. You are asking us to plan an itinerary for you without much to start with other than you would like to return to Kyoto. Suggest you spend some time here: japan-guide.com - Japan Travel and Living Guide

>> hate to do more that 100 steps
That won't be a problem.

>> love nature, cities, food and culture
That is the broad, generic bit. Everybody loves that stuff. Japan has its own version of those categories, Anything unique to Japan that interests you? And what in those categories? (e.g. nature = hiking, gardens, ..., cities = museums, parks, entertainment and nightlife ...)

>> Loved both Tokyo and Kyoto
Ok, good. Why? That was a short trip, so what did you miss? I assume you did some research before the trip and had to pare down your wish list to fit the time you had.

But here you go: with 6 days you could spend 4 in Kyoto and 2 in Osaka. That would cover the "cities, food and culture". A day trip out to Arashiyama from Kyoto would get you some nature.

With tourism open and being summer, should you stay in Kyoto and decide to visit sites such as Arashiyama, Kiyomizu Dera or other popular attractions, go early or later in the day to avoid the large crowds. You’ll have a bit more time to enjoy what is there. Nothing like shuffling along with hundreds of other visitors to get a quick view at peak times.

Two SENSATIONAL sites to visit : the stunning HIMEJI Castle, where many samurai movies have been shot, including Kurozawa's masterpiece Ran
https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3501.html
and, north of it, the ancient city of NARA, which includes THREE World Heritage sites.
https://www.visitnara.jp/

Both are very easily accessible from Osaka by high-speed trains

thank you so much. doing a lot of reading as you suggested.

There is also a huge castle in Osaka, but I did not visit it for lack of time.

Definitely planning to visit Osaka Castle. Thinking of staying in Osaka as a home base and doing day trips to Kyoto, Nara and ..
Thoughts?

Osaka Castle is a reproduction and is a good local museum inside. The original castle was besieged and destroyed in a pivotal moment in Japanese history. There is some artwork that depicts the ferocious battle when the castle was lost.

It is in a nice park. Enter from the southwest corner of the park and you can go on through the park to the Osakajokoen JR station. You would go to the left and behind the castle to get to that station.

"Day trips" not quite clear : Remember that one day in Kyoto and one in Nara is much too short ! Kyoto is fabulous and there are so many monuments + the famous gardens with raked sand to see that you need a MINIMUM of 2 days.

I think that could work well. Kyoto is only around 15mins by train from Osaka. Nara maybe 45 mins. Easily commutable. Some sort of rail pass may be worth considering. Staying somewhere near the station would cut total journey times. You could also do it the other way around and get a train to Kyoto on arrival and use that as a base. Before deciding on a base I would think about which sites you want to include and then consider which location would minimise travel time. e.g. if most sites are in Kyoto stay there, if in Osaka, that would be the place to base yourselves.

Planning our last trip to Japan I found this site to be invaluable;

https://www.insidekyoto.com

Written by an ex Lonely Planet journalist, they are very well written and laid out. There is also one for Osaka

https://insideosaka.com

Last time in Japan we were there for 10 days and split our time 50:50 between Tokyo and Kyoto. 5 days was barely enough for either and we could have spent longer in both. We visited Nara as a day trip from Kyoto. A day was about right I felt and wouldn’t want any longer there.

In Kyoto, I rented a bicycle, distances are not that far. For dinner, go on the narrow street alongside the river; there is an excellent sushi place at the beginning on the left, and a jazz club a little farther away on the right. And believe it or not, you will see some real geishas.

Hello to the Community!
We ultimately settled on flying to Osaka going right away to Kyoto and staying there for 3 nights and then moving the home base to Osaka for additional 5 nights with plan to visit Nara and Hiroshima before flying to Korea.
How can I purchase 7 day

JR Kansai - Hiroshima Area Pass ?

At Osaka airport?
Thank you,

>> At Osaka airport?

Yes, if you mean Osaka Kansai Airport (KIX). There is a JR West ticket office at KIX.

No (I think, pretty sure) if you mean Osaka Itami (ITM).

JR Kansai Hiroshima Area Pass (japan-guide.com)

yes, we arrive at Osaka Kansai Airport

Thank you. We will visit JR west office at KIX.
thank you

You saw that for the rest of this month that the pass will cost 15,000 if you purchase the pass outside of Japan or 16,000 if purchased in Japan.

On October 1 the pass will cost 17,000 no matter where you purchase it.

1000 JPY = 6.78 USD today
So you could save maybe 14 bucks if you purchase now..

Do not forget to stop qt the sensational HIMEI CQTLE between Osaka and Kyoto

Thank you

HIMEI CQTLE ? Did you mean Himeji Castle? IIf you have the time, I would def go to Himeji Castle. Osaka Castle is very informative and not a waste of time, but Himeji is the original structure.

Yes, it is HI:EJI and it is stunning

A few photos of HIMEJI castle. Well worth a visit.


https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...432d70a2e.jpeg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...a75609bb9.jpeg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...2e68a38b4.jpeg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...6ddea53c6.jpeg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fod...328653df2.jpeg

Just to note that its 15 min by Shinkansen from ShinOsaka station to Kyoto. Taking other trains from other Osaka stations and trains can take 30-45 minutes.

That is a good point if you are staying next to Shin Osaka and had a rail pass. Shin Osaka would be a good base to visit Kyoto, Himeji, Hiroshima day trip, etc, but would also require commuting to Osaka to see the sights there.

Most visitors to Osaka stay closer to the main rail stations rather than to Shin Osaka. Two stations near each other: JR Osaka Station and Hankyu Osaka-Umeda Station that can be used to get to Kyoto.The Hankyu (non-JR) train has a couple of useful stops in Kyoto city and might be better than JR depending on where you are going in Kyoto (and to some extent, where you are starting in Osaka).

From JR Osaka Station to Kyoto Station:
Time required: 0:29 Price: 580 YEN on JR Rapid Service train
Time required: 0:29 Price: 2,070 YEN on JR Limited Express
Time required: 0:29 Price: 3,280 YEN using Nozomi shinkansen

The rapid service is frequent enough that you just show up at the station and take the next train (which probably originates there and empty when boarding). That costs all of $4.

The limited express is a nicer train but less frequent and higher cost if no pass. Am pretty sure it stops at Shin Osaka.

The shinkansen option would mean taking the rapid service train 5 min to Shin Osaka and 10 min to transfer to the shinkansen for the 15 min ride to Kyoto.The total travel time could be 28 to 31 minutes. You could save 200 yen, I think, if you didn't take Nozomi, but that would reduce your options significantly. But, that might be your only shinkansen option if your pass doesn't include Nozomi (some passes exclude all shinkansen between Shin Osaka and Kyoto)

That rapid service train you take from Osaka to Shin Osaka is likely going on to Kyoto. Your choice is then to stay on that train or spend your time transferring to the shinkansen (much more comfortable, but Shin Osaka is big). Either way, you get to Kyoto at about the same time.

Don't ask me why I went into all that. Bottom line is that it is not 15 min from "Osaka" to Kyoto by train. It is double that or longer, depending on where you are starting the trip. Osaka is a big city.

Thank you everybody for helping planning the trip to Japan!
InsideOsaka.com and InsideKyoto.com turned out to be great sites with so much helpful info. We are back and I am happy to report that that segment of the trip before going to Korea for 13 day was excellent.
We ended up getting a 7-day JR pass which we pre-ordered in US prior to price increase and picked up in Kyoto. When we picked up the pass, we also got tickets to Osaka, round trip to Hiroshima. Some local trips with JR pass like to Nara, Arashiyama did not require tickets.
After we flew to Osaka we took a pre-ordered taxi (about $130) to the Cross Hotel in Kyoto. Since we arrived pretty late, we figured out that taking cab will save us time since we did not have to stand in long line to get the pass and figure out trains and transfers to Kyoto. We stayed in Kyoto for 3 nights and saw most of the sights we planned. Kyoto is definitely an open air museum. Then we stayed in Nikko Hotel in Osaka for 4 nights. Used JR to visit Nara, a pretty full and great day, and Hiroshima with its museums. It was nice also to use JR ferry to also visit Miyajima.
Happy travels!