In order to get to
Kyoto from
Narita Airport, we had to catch the NEX (an express train that travels from the airport to
Tokyo,
Yokohama or
Saitama and back to the airport) to
Shinagawa Station and make our way to
Kyoto Station from there. We were actually a little excited and forgot about buying some drinks to quench our thirst. By the time we realized that we had forgotten to buy the drinks, with still about 10 minutes to spare, I rushed back out again of the station and went to the convenience store near the JR Ticketing corner where we had been earlier. I guess that is one of the benefits of the JR Pass, you can (re)enter the station multiple times with little worry. lol
From Narita Airport to Shinagawa Station
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| Tickets with our reserved seats indicated |
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| How many stops to go and which station are you at, displayed in English, Japanese, Chinese and Korean |
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| There was not many people that morning from Narita |
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| There is ample space to put your luggage in front of you. If not, there is a luggage parking space at the back and/or back of the cabin to store them. Alternatively, if you luggage is small enough, you can place them overhead. |
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| Display of the train lines and transfer information |
From Shinagawa Station, we made our way to the closest available (scheduled) bullet train. Although we could have taken the train to Tokyo Station, it would be more of a hassle, we decided to transfer at Shinagawa Station instead. If we had transferred at Tokyo Station, the Narita Express (train) from Narita Airport would arrive at the underground platform, located on the west side of Tokyo Station while the Shinkansen (platform) is located at the east end: we would have had to go up and down the escalators multiple times (which could have taken us an extra 15-30 minutes of walking) before reaching the Shinkansen platform.
Tip: Tokyo and Kyoto are connected to each other via the JR Tokaido Shinkansen. Nozomi trains (which are more expensive and not covered by the JR Pass) require about 140 minutes (that would be around 2 and a half hours) to reach Kyoto from Tokyo. While Hikari trains (which are covered by the JR Pass) take about 160 minutes (3 hours or so) and the Kodama trains (also covered by the JR Pass) take about four hours.
From Shinagawa Station to Kyoto (Station)
The moment we alighted at
Shinagawa Station, we meandered our way to catch our
Shinkansen (bullet train) and journeyed to
Kyoto Station. Since the journey was about 3 hours, there was some time for a little nap too.
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| Our reserved seat tickets from Shinagawa to Kyoto |
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| The information display once again. In addition, there was also announcements. |
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| There was still ample space to place our luggage in front of us. Of course, if you want to use the table, than that would be a different story. |
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| Though the seat color was different on this train, the configuration was similar as the NEX. |
By the time we arrived at
Kyoto Station, being the eager beavers that we were, we decided to first reserve the
Sagano Scenic Railway tickets for the next day. It was a culture shock the moment we alighted the train at
Kyoto Station, simply because the station was huge and there were so many people (and multiple exits)! It certainly did not help that there were too many signage that we almost had a mental breakdown. lol But find our way to the JR Ticketing Counter we did, with our luggage in tow too (quite a feat if you ask me).
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| Kyoto Station... we have arrived! |
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| Trying to get our bearings to get to the ticketing area |
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| The queue when we arrived, which only grow in number as we were in line |
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| Sagano Scenic Railway tickets which cost 620¥ each. The JR Pass cannot be used to reserve the tickets. |
I had actually planned to get the tickets for the morning, but they were all sold so the only option was to choose a different timing. Due to the sudden change in plan, in a haste I chose the earliest timing but as M later pointed out (when we were recharging at the Airbnb apartment before heading out to dinner), since the station was from Kameoka (the opposite direction from the original plan) it would mean that there would be little time to explore
Arashimaya if were were to catch the 12:35pm train. Thankfully this was easily remedied as we went back again to the ticketing corner later in the evening to change the timing. The counter staff who attended to us was kind enough to change it for us at no additional cost and told us that it could only be done once, so we had to be sure of the timing.
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| Mission Accomplished! |
With tickets (and luggage) in hand, we made our way to our
Kyoto Airbnb accommodation’s nearest station –
Tofukugi Station (one stop away from
Kyoto Station).
When travel collides with a byte, a unit of information made up of bits, TravelBytez is formed: snippets of ramblings on travel, food, shopping, living and anything else that comes to mind.
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