My Osaka-Kyoto 5 days Itinerary #2: Tips for Transportation, Food & Places to Visit

Visit Part 1 for the sample itinerary, more tips and recommendation for Osaka Kyoto trip.

Here's the continuation of my trip in Osaka and Kyoto! Both these places actually rarely snow even in the middle of winter, so on the 3rd day, I decided to bring my family out of the city to search for snow scenery!

Day 3 - Kifune Shrine (For the snow scenery), Gion, Fushimi Inari with Keihan Kyoto Osaka Sightseeing Pass

Before our trip, I find it tough to decide on which railway pass to use. So when I finally decided that Keihan Railway's Kyoto Osaka Sightseeing Pass is most suitable for us, I had to go all the way to Shinsaibashi with everyone's passport to secure these tourist only passes. Bad planning indeed!

These passes cost 700yen for 1 day adult ticket and 1000yen for 2 days adult ticket. After researching about them, I realize it's really convenient to use this pass if I'm staying in Osaka but wanted to visit most popular spots in Kyoto!
 

Kifune Jinja (Kifune Shrine)

We started our day by heading all the way to Demachiyanagi Station (出町柳駅, Demachiyanagi-eki), which is the last station on one of Keihan Railway's last station. To travel here from Osaka with a normal pass will cost us 420yen, so just a to and fro trip to this station will already be more expensive than the Keihan Special Pass itself! From here we change to Eizan Electric Railway (not covered by the pass) and heads to Kibune. This whole journey is hunt for the beautiful snow scenery at Kifune Shrine. 

After a total of more than 2 hour journey from Osaka, we finally arrived to a beautiful winter wonderland! Of course it was not snowing when we arrived at 10.30am, but there are still plenty of snow covering the ground and we were all mesmerised by the scenery! It'll take 10min for a bus trip up the mountain to Kifune Shrine but everyone rather take the half and hour walk to take in the scenery, despite sore legs and fever and all. 

 

Departing from Kibune, we head back to Demachiyanagi Station and had a nice tenppan lunch in a tiny restaurant own by an old couple before continuing the trip down to Kyoto. As usual, our meals are all below 1000yen and we get to enjoy yummy rice set and also some okonomiyaki and negiyaki as sides!

Gion

Gion in the day

Nest stop - Gion! We walked around Gion and it's surrounding area. Since it was still early there wasn't much to see as Gion is famous for it's night life and restaurants. We manages to find a pair of Maiko (Geisha apprentices), pure luck as we didn't stay around for long! 

Fushimi Inari

 Tanuki (racoon dog) 

After Gion, we went to Fushimi Inari. When we arrive, we were all surprised and in joy! Why? Because there is a whole 2 rows of food stalls leading straight up to the shrine! Immediately the shine become secondary and all our focus went to the food!

 

Best grilled beef ever! 

  
This is a really fruitful day, since we manage to find snow, found amazing street food and also same a lot of money on the transport as well!

Recommendation: For those who visit Kyoto during winter but don't get to see snow, do visit Kifune Shrine for the amazing snow scenery! You can also visit Mount Kurama and also the shrines and Onsen there in the same day. The journey is a bit long from Osaka/Kyoto, but it will be worth it!

Tips: Keihan Railway's Kyoto-Osaka sightseeing pass is worth getting! One day cost 700yen and 2 days cost 1000yen. For those who stay in Kyoto, there is also Kyoto sightseeing pass (500yen). However, I personally think this pass is more of a value for travelers who stay in Osaka and wants to visit Kyoto for a day trip.

Keihan line train give easy access to Gion, Tofukuji Temple, Fushimi Inari Shrine and Kamogawa River. For travelers who want to hunt for snow scenery in Kibune and Kurama, the train also goes to Demachiyanagi station that links to Eizan Electric Railway to both areas.

Day 4 - Americamura, Shinsaibashi, Dotonburi, Namba Kuromon Market

We reserved day 4 for food and shopping in the city! It was fun walking around the Americamura (kinda like Osaka version of Harajuku), shopping in Shinsaibashi and eating in Namba! Too bad it was raining for the whole day so we had to skip Kuromon Market, but if there is another chance I'll definitely NOT miss it!

 Americamura (American Town)

Day 5 - Universal Studio Japan

Our final day in Osaka was spent in Universal Studio Japan. It was indeed very fun, and many of the rides are enjoyable even for my scardy cat younger sister! And of course, as a Potterhead just by seeing Hogwarts I'm already feeling that the RM300 I spent on the ticket is SO WORTH IT. Bias alert? Anyway, review for the USJ will be a post for another day =D

We left the park after it's closing time - 7pm for weekdays. Going back home was suppose to be easy, however unfortunately there was an accident along the train line so multiple trains are delayed, and we get to feel first hand how Japanese squeezes them into the already packed sardin-tin-train. The whole ordeal made us get home 1 hour late but lucky for us, after starving in the bone chilling night breeze, I found a small restaurant near we stay that serve hot set meals!

 

Huge, delicious warm meal that costs around 600yen each set! 

What's left after that is just packing up for our flight the next morning. 5 days is definitely too short to enjoy fully what Osaka and Kyoto has to offer, and we also missed a couple of nice places. But I hope what I shared will be able to give an idea to some of you to plan your next trip there.

I'm already missing Japan! I'll definitely be back there one day.


For part 1 of our trip : https://little-hideout.blogspot.com.au/2017/02/my-osaka-kyoto-5-days-itinerary-1-tips.html