This is our complete itinerary of the four days we spent in Kyoto and Osaka. We visited iconic temples, strolled through beautiful cherry blossoms, experienced a geiko (geisha) and maiko performance and enjoyed authentic Japanese food.
Osaka was an overlapping stop on our two cruises. We had four days all together in this port. It is approximately one hour drive time (without traffic) from Osaka to Kyoto, 75 minutes (without traffic) from the port to Kyoto.
Kyoto & Osaka: Our Four Day Itinerary
We had two full days the first time we were in the Osaka port, and we had two tours booked with the ship (Silversea).
Our first tour was the dreaded panoramic view from a mountain (Mt Koko) and then on to a sake museum.
The ride up the mountain took about an hour, and it was a very interesting drive.
Throughout Asia we have seen tall apartment buildings. This ride, we saw those too, but we also saw a lot of single family houses – which was very different.
The road up to Mt Koko was an engineering marvel to me. Instead of the road being on the mountain, or using tunnels, there were “freestanding” roads – like a big highway in a valley that went circling up on bridge-type platforms. I wish I could have gotten better photos as it was fascinating to see.
The view from Mt Koko was meh. I am not sure if it was smog or inversion, but there was definitely something hanging in the air over Osaka.
The sake museum – Hakutsuru – was a well done sake brewery. A short film (with English subtitles) pm the history of sake and how it was made, as well as some exhibits.
The sake tasting was help yourself with unmanned sake casks that had a small amount of sake come out from a spigot when you held the plastic shot cup underneath.
I usually do not care for sake, but they had a lemon infused on that Hubby and I enjoyed so much, we bought it. It reminded me of a less harsh limoncello.
Those are some of the exhibits at the sake museum.
Here is a video on youtube I posted about the performance.
After that, it was back to the ship to have lunch and to catch our next tour to a Geisha performance and accompanying dinner.
We told a few of our fellow passengers where we were going that evening, and people were actually jealous! Apparently, seeing a Geisha performance is not an easy task, especially for visitors to Japan.
We drove to Kyoto and had some time before the dinner performance, so we walked around the grounds of a Buddhist Temple down the street. The grounds were very large and so was the temple!
After that, it was on to dinner.
There was a Maiko (trainee or apprentice who danced and was a young person), Geiko (Geisha performer) and shamisen player (she played the instrument).
We had to take our shoes off on arrival (yuck, but it is Japanese custom). The place we went to had a spa and hotel, and everyone had to remove their shoes, including hotel guests. The couple behind us was asked by the attendant for their room number to retain their shoes! Like a shoe valet.
When Sonny-boy and his wife went to Japan a few months later, he sent me a photo of the slippers supplied by their hotel for when they removed their shoes. Sonny-boy has size 15 feet… just a little larger than the average Japanese person!
We went upstairs to a private room with a preset table and VERY low chairs. (Hubby had to lift me up to get me out of it when we were leaving, and I wasn’t the only person who had to be “assisted.” It was better than sitting on the floor, but not by much.
Dinner was enjoyable with many courses.
The show was interesting, and in a real surprise to me, the ladies stayed on after their performance for photos, engagement, and games (which were fun!).
All-in-all a very special evening.
After our 14 hour day the day before, we decided we were taking the ship’s shuttle into downtown Osaka for lunch and shopping.
Hubby found a FANTASTIC Kobe beef restaurant that only had nine seats!
We walked in, saw a Japanese couple on one side so sat at the other end of the counter so as not to crowd them. About 20 minutes later, a young Chinese couple walked in and sat next to us.
Throughout the meal the six of us conversed … in English!
Even when Hubby and I had to pay attention to the cook in front of us (it was like a performance!) the other two couples continued to talk to one another in English.
I have no idea what was in those bags, but it was simply delicious. The bags were put on the edge of the grill and came to a boil! I’d love to buy some of those plastic bags.
How did we know where these couples were from? They told us!
Like all of Asia that we traveled through, English was the common language. We have been truly spoiled in our travels to be able to get around well with either English (French, Spanish) or google translate.
The food was all prepared in front of us on the grill. Since I am not a sushi fan, our raw steak sushi was blow torched in front of us (the rice was inside).
The Japanese couple ate the sushi, the Chinese couple also had it blow torched like we did.
After our delicious, inexpensive (for Kobe beef, it was cheap! In Kobe, I had it again and it was the most expensive meal we had on our trip!) meal, we went to shop in the market.
There was some truly fantastic seafood available in this market – from king crab (just enormous) to sea urchin to all sorts of fish and shell fish.
At the time of our trip to Japan, 1000 yen was $6.78, 5000 yen was $33.40.
A few weeks later, we returned to Osaka via Celebrity. As I mentioned in my last Japan post, I am grouping these posts by city, not by date traveled.
Back to Osaka…
Hubby and I figured we could head by to Kyoto on this stop (this was our second two day stop). The original plan was to take a tour in Osaka and spend the day.
The weather took a turn for the very cold and windy. I also told Hubby I wasn’t felling it for a $350 – $400 taxi ride (Osaka port to Kyoto).
So, I asked him if there was anything else he really wanted to do in Osaka? Maybe that would save us some money. But, he said no.
I then came up with the idea of taking the subway/train to Kyoto. He was on board with that idea (heh) and round trip was $18.66 USD per person.
It did take us about an hour longer (total time there and back) than a taxi, however.
We walked the three blocks down to the train/subway station from our ship, and with some help from the English speaking assistant at the ticket terminal, Hubby purchased us two one-way tickets (round trip tickets were “unavailable.”)
Hubby’s comment about the ticketing terminals is they are clunky. In Europe, you put in your destination and the terminal figures out your path and transit (talking trains) and cost. And you are finished once you pay and they spit out the ticket(s). The Japanese ticking machines required that you know your route AND destination stop number.
With the help of an English function, he figured it out, but he said it was not intuitive. You really needed to have the information to feed the machine.
I’ll tell you this… if it wasn’t easy for him, I have NO idea what non-Japanese people it would be easy for! Hubby is excellent at this sort of thing, and this was the first time I saw him take any sort of time to figure out train ticketing.
We got on the train – which was just as clean, plush, and quaint you would expect in Japan. It was unassigned subway type seating, EXCEPT that the seats were not plastic, they were push fabric covered benches designed for one ( handicapped), two, or three people.
We did have to change trains (it was easy) and we were in Kyoto about an hour later. Our return trip took a bit longer as there wasn’t a direct train and we had to change trains twice. The locals trains split into a Y and that did not work in our favor on the return trip.
All of the trains we took in Japan were clean and quiet. This included the packed local that was standing room only. It is simply a different, much more pleasant public transportation experience than in the US or Europe.
Once we got to Kyoto we headed over to the Nishiki Market. It is four blocks long, and I made it almost three blocks before telling Hubby to “get me out of here!!!” And that was with stopping two blocks in for lunch!
There were over 100 shops and restaurants jammed into one tiny “street.” The walkway is ludicrous and barely had room for three people abreast. In that space people are standing outside restaurants buying take-away, finding a free spot to eat (more on this in a second), purchasing products, AND trying to pass on the left and right.
The chaos made me nauseous.
There were men with signs to “keep left” and physically pushing people to do so. This was so people who had the natural inclination to walk on the right would not do so.
People are also NOT allowed to eat while walking in this market.
Generally speaking, eating and drinking while walking or on a public street while on Japan is a no-no (this in spite of the vending machines1)
In other markets, we saw plenty of people walking while eating, but not in front of the restaurant – that was not allowed. In other markets there was also plenty of standing tables and empty spaces to take your purchases to and eat your purchased foods. There was none of that in this market which meant people congregated in little circles to the side of the kiosks and restaurants which contributed to the crowds and pathway blocking.
There were a few restaurants and kiosks to eat that had stools to sit at, but those places were slammed.
In addition to the men pushing, there were ladies with signs yelling “NO EATING” in English and Japanese to people who dared to put a purchased food item to their lips.
This all added to the general chaos and confusion.
Hubby found us a little restaurant to have lunch at down a small market sidewalk. It had a limited menu, but that was fine.
It was an oasis of calm in a crazy marketplace. And, the food was good, too!
I wanted nothing to do with sushi beef, and had enough steak the last few days, so settled on the egg/beef bowl. It had a layer of hot rice topped with cold, rare (so cooked) beef slices, vegetables, and an egg. And, the egg was cold, too.
I gave the egg and my soup to Hubby (he ordered the same meal) and ate my box meal and a terrific salad. I finished off the lunch with a local craft beef.
After that, it was back to the madhouse market before I called it quits in under a block.
We walked through more shopping and I found a “Made in Japan” store. I could have gone crazy buying in there, but with luggage weight going home being tight, I refrained.
We stumbled onto a street with cherry blossoms in bloom! There wasn’t even a leaf to be had when we were in Kyoto the week prior, so to see tree after tree in their cherry blossom glory was a wonderful surprise!
After that, it was on to the “Geiko (Geisha) Street.” Everything was close as it was between 3 and 5pm, but the upside is it was pretty empty so we got to see the side streets and building up close.
When finished with that, we wanted a cup of coffee to warm up. As many shops were closed at that time of day, we were wondering if this was going to be possible without hitting the main drag. Well, low and behold, Hubby stumbled across a small coffee shop with 10 counter chairs.
Something that surprised us in Japan is that restaurants have smoking areas. Well, this whole place was a smoking area!
This place was absolutely amazing. From the 1940s music playing, the four and a half foot tall 80+ year old owner, the 1950s tile work, the 1980s solid oak chairs to the $10,00 Italian coffee machine behind the counter, the place was a study in juxtaposition.
Everything here was in Japanese, so Hubby got out the translator to take a photo. No need. As he was snapping the picture the little old lady behind the counter said, “Cappuccino? Latte?” and that was when we saw that big, beautiful coffee machine.
The place even had its own branded coffee pods. I cannot believe it was part of a chain. This place was truly unique.
Hubby ordered a chocolate bomb dessert and we spent a very pleasant hour in this teeny-tiny coffee shop near the Geisha district in Kyoto, Japan.
We then walked back to the train station by way of the cherry blossom street. We arrived back to the ship just as darkness was falling.
The next day our plan was to stay close to the ship. Hubby had explored the area the week prior and we were not interested in all the kid-friendly area activities (there were a lot). We did – briefly – consider the aquarium, but decided against it when seeing all the children.
So, lunch it was – except – the day before was cold and windy and Hubby ended up catching a cold. He still wanted to go out, but it was 40 degrees, windy, and we were only leaving the boat for lunch! Plus, blowing his nose frequently in public would have been frowned upon.
So, that was the end of our days in Osaka and Kyoto.
Would be go back? To Kyoto in a heartbeat. To Osaka? Meh.
Since this has become a very long post, I will close for now…
Our other stops on this long vacation:
● Japan Short Break in Fukuoka & Hiroshima
● South Korea 4 Days: Seoul, Incheon, Busan, Jeju Island
● Our One-Day Taiwan Itinerary
● Hong Kong, China | Our Day Trip
● One Week in Vietnam: Our 7-Day Adventure
● Short Stay in Thailand: Elephants, Food & Cultural Gems
● Our Two Days in Singapore: Itinerary & AttractionsBali, Indonesia | Two Days on the Island
● Adelaide to Perth: Our Australia Travel Stops
● Two Days in Melbourne, Australia: Our Itinerary
● Two Days in Tasmania: Short Stay Itinerary
● Exploring New Zealand North Island
● Auckland, New Zealand – Sightseeing and Our Itinerary
● For more travel posts on Ann’s Entitled Life, click here.
● If you enjoyed this post, be sure to sign up for the Ann’s Entitled Life weekly newsletter, and never miss another article!
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