From Takayama to Kyoto Station by train

3 June 2016

The travel from Takayama to Kyoto covers a distance of 314 km and should take about 189 minutes according to Hyperdia, the train scheduling tool on the internet. That seemed like a long time but train travel in Japan is quite pleasant. There would be a 144 minutes ride on a JR limited express train from Takayama to Nagoya. The limited express train only stops at a few major stations along the route and would be much faster than a local train. From Nagoya, a 36 minutes ride on a Shinkansen bullet train would take us to Kyoto Station.

We bought the tickets for the 9.38 AM train from the service counter inside the small Takayama Station and were given 3 small green coloured tickets each. One showed something like a ticket for the journey from Takayama to Kyoto, another ticket for the Limited Express train and then one for the bullet train. Since it was a weekday and off-peak period, we bought tickets for the unreserved seats to save some money.

Inside of the limited express Hida Wide View train from Takayama to Nagoya passing through a tunnel.

 

The limited express Hida Wide View train was quite new, spacious, with plenty of legroom and came with wide windows. The ride from Takayama to Nagoya passed though some gorgeous scenery.

The following photos were shot using my smartphone, pressed against  the crystal clear glass windows to avoid reflections.

Many rice paddies were seen as we departed from Takayama. We had came up close to many of these during our Nakasendo hike but it was good to see these again as we bid goodbye to rural Japan and headed towards the busy city of Nagoya and Kyoto.

The scenery soon changed to mountains and lakes with strangely blue and green waters. The green waters in these lakes reminded me of the glacier lakes I saw in the Canadian Rockies.

Occasionally, we passed by small hamlets and villages with farms so near to the train tracks.

The train made a brief 3 minutes stop when it arrived at Gifu. Then it went backwards and the uninformed would have thought that the train would be going back to Takayama! Actually, the next station would be Nagoya.

At Nagoya Station, we were to exit the gates from the JR station and re-enter the gates to the Shinkansen tracks.  To exit the JR station gates, we were to insert all three tickets, stacked together, into the gate machine. Once the gate opened, we walked though the gates and two tickets would be returned to us at the other side. These two tickets would be needed to enter the gates to the Shinkansen tracks.

We had 8 minutes to make the transfer which was enough time if there was no delays. Unfortunately, my wife only received one ticket returned by the machine and we had to seek the help of a station staff at the gate to retrieve the missing ticket. Using sign language and speaking slow and simple English, we had to overcome the language barrier and make the staff understand what happened. I guess this happened many times before as the staff knew exactly what he needed to do. Despite the delay, we made it to the scheduled Shinkansen, bound for Kyoto. Even if we missed this, we could have just taken the next train, since our ticket was for an unreserved seat and the train came at 10 minutes intervals.

Kyoto Station was only one stop away, with the bullet train covering 147.6 km in 36 minutes. That was about 250 km/hr on the average. And it was very quiet inside the cabin – no speaking on mobile phones, no loud talking and plenty of legroom. A fast and efficient way for domestic travel across large distance and much better and safer than taking a domestic flight.

At the Kyoto Station, we inserted both tickets into the exit gate machine to get out.

Compared to the other train stations we had been on this trip, Kyoto Station is huge! And crowded with people. An astounding sight of very disciplined Japanese school kids sitting in neat rows on the podium floor greeted us. This was excursion week for the schools and they were going places. We had seen many of them along the Nakasendo trail and also at Kamikochi.

 

Our hotel in Kyoto was the Ibis Style Kyoto Station and as usual, I had booked a hotel within walking distance to the transportation hub. Kyoto Station is served by Japan Railways (JR), Kintetsu Railways and the Karasuma Subway Line. Just outside the station is the large bus terminal for city buses and long distance and overnight highway buses. Inside the station itself, there are numerous shops, restaurants and other facilities including Isetan and a tourist information center.

We met up with our travelling companions at the Ibis.  They had came to Kyoto one day earlier. We collected our forwarded luggage from the reception and did an early check-in at 2 PM. Then it was back to the Kyoto Station to collect our JR Kansai Hiroshima Pass.

It was cheaper (13000 Yen, instead of 14,000 Yen) if the train pass were booked in advance via internet before arrival in Japan. More information on the various available train passes can be found at the JR West website here.

The ticket office is located near the Central Gate. There was no signage for the ticket office, so the best thing was to follow the signage for the Central Gate and the office could be seen once we were at the gates.

Just outside the Central Gate in Kyoto Station.  The long escalators will lead up all the way to the 11th floor where there is a sky terrace. Restaurants could be found on the 10th and 11th floor.

There are many restaurants serving lunch within the station. We walked out of the North exit of Kyoto Station and took the first set of escalators down to the basement floor to reach Porta, an underground area with shops and restaurants.

 

We decided on a Japanese restaurant to grab a late lunch.

Passageway leading to the subway station.

Our plan for the afternoon was to take the subway to the Shijo area and explore the area around there, including the Nishiki Market. 

More about the Nishiki Market in the next post.