Sally Alexander

One of the reasons I chose to use Kyoto as a base is due to its central geographic location. This post describes our experience for two unplanned, spur of the moment day trips. The first to Osaka, and the second to Uji, the tea capital of Japan. (We also did a day trip to Hiroshima, but that will be its own separate post.) I will also try and explain why we decided not to do the day trip everyone has in their itineraries, and that is a day trip to Nara.

Why we chose not to visit Nara

Nara is close to Kyoto (about an hour away) and was Japan’s first capital. It’s renowned for its cultural treasures, and its herd of deer. There are two ways of getting there, but the route via Kintetsu Railway (limited express or express trains) arrives at the Kintetsu Nara Station which is closer to Nara Park than the JR Nara station. According to the Kintetsu Railway website all limited express trains require train tickets with reserved seats. And that became the sticking point for us. Weird, I know.

Oddly enough, I find the concept of reserving seats and a particular train more stressful than simply being an unreserved ticket, or simply winging it. (The anxiety here is “what if we miss our train?” ) And that made it easy for us to find reasons not to visit Nara.

Now, I’m not suggesting that you take Nara off your list. Remember, you travel for yourself not for others. I just want to be transparent about our thinking and reasoning. Were we wrong? Misguided? Probably. But we managed to pack our days with other great experiences, that I didn’t mind missing out. And there’s always next time. Perhaps Nara will make our next visit to Japan.

Osaka

We visited Osaka on a Friday. We wanted to “test” out the Shinkansen. By this time we were becoming pros using our digital IC Cards (Suica Cards) in our Apple Wallets to tap in and out riding the local trains and even (drumroll please) the local buses. But the Shinkansen’s seemed a whole different beast. First off you can’t use your digital IC Cards in the same way you ride the local trains. Shinkansens have a different ticketing system. Yes, the JR Shinkansen companies have tried to create work arounds but that involves setting up an account on their app, and linking your Suica Card to your profile. You still have to purchase your ticket/s separately, and then link your IC card to it. I’ve found that if things are too complicated for my brain, I tend to avoid them. Now, we couldn’t avoid riding the bullet trains, not if, we wanted to visit Hiroshima, and not if we wanted to catch the train to our next destination in Hakone, and our return to Tokyo.

I should pause here to try and explain Japan’s amazing transportation system. That would be a separate blog post. Others have done a better job of explaining IC Cards and what they are, as well as, explaining Japan’s transportation system. Check those out.

We checked with the front desk of our hotel about our understanding of purchasing Shinkansen tickets, and we found a very interesting hack. There are essentially two levels of tickets. The base fare – which allows you to ride any Shinkansen to your designated destination on a chosen day. (The base fare is valid for a chosen date, and a chosen destination.) And the second ticket which is the ticket you have to purchase if you want to reserve a seat. This ticket is only valid for that particular train. If you miss your train you cannot use it. You have to buy another ticket to reserve a seat and a train. (I believe you can cancel, but you can only cancel before your reserved train departs.)

You don’t have to reserve a train and a seat. If you use only your base fare ticket, you can ride any Shinkansen on a designated day as long as you sit in the unreserved cars.

And this is what we did. We tried it first for a trip to Osaka. And it worked so beautifully that we did it on all our shinkansen rides (to Hiroshima, to Hakone (Odawara) and to Tokyo. Some of the trains had 2 unreserved cars. The Shinkansens that stopped more frequently had more cars set aside for unreserved tickets.

After we arrived at the Shin-Osaka station, we headed for the Namba neighborhood to browse around and find something to eat. We came across this restaurant that specialized in unagi (eel.)

A good friend of mine had raved about grilled eel on rice, and we decided to try this out. (We later found that the reviews for this restaurant were outstanding.)

It helped that the menu set up outside was also in English with helpful photographs.

My order arrived on these beautiful wooden trays. The food was DIVINE.

I was pleasantly surprised with how meaty and delicious grilled eel tasted.

With our bellies full, we decided to visit the Osaka Castle.

Thanks to Google Maps we caught the local train to the station closest to Osaka Castle Park. It is well sign posted, and easy to follow.

We had perfect weather to amble around Osaka Castle Park. We opted not to purchase tickets to climb inside the castle. It was so beautiful to be outside.

Uji

We visited Uji, Japan’s Matcha Tea Capital on a Sunday.

We used the Keihan railway line to Uji. The Uji Keihan station deposits you on the north side of the Uji river.

We walked over the bridge spanning the Uji river because I wanted to visit the Byodo-in Temple.

We had superb weather. The fall foliage was spectacular.

Yes, there were crowds (it was a Sunday) but the crowds weren’t overwhelming. The line to get tickets for the Byodo-in Temple was long, but there are two entrances. We opted for the second entrance because the line didn’t look so long.

We tried matcha ice cream, and rice balls.

I’ve discovered that I am not a matcha fan. I like it when paired with something else. But on its own, it has a bitter taste that lingers far longer on my palate than I like. I guess it’s an acquired taste. At least I tried it.

We returned to Kyoto by taking the JR train from the JR Uji station south of the river.

Takeaways: I loved our trip to Osaka. It is one of those cities that has a lot to offer, and we didn’t have time to explore more. I certainly would like to return to Osaka and perhaps spend more time in the city. As for Uji, I’m glad I visited, but I don’t think I would return as I discovered that I’m not a matcha fan.

I’m glad I had these experiences.