How to Get from Kansai Airport (KIX) to Kyoto / Osaka city center.
Along with Tokyo’s two airports, Kansai Airport is the main gateway to Japan. However, Kansai airport is a little far from city center of Osaka and Kyoto. You can access Osaka and Kyoto easily from Kansai Airport, but you don’t want to be bothered to learn about the train system after your long flight to Japan. So today, I’d like to explain about the different way to access to Kyoto and Osaka city center from Kansai Airport.
You can also watch this article on YouTube. How to Get from Kansai Airport (KIX) to KYOTO / OSAKA
Terminals at Kansai International Airport
Kansai International Airport’s airport code is (KIX) and also called “Kanku” by Japanese as abbreviation. There are two terminals at Kansai International Airport, but most of the users might arrive at the main terminal – Terminal 1. Terminal 2 is only used for LCC called Peach at the moment, and you can access to Terminal 2 by shuttle bus.
Train Station and Bus Stop to the City
There is a train station in front of Terminal 1, and two train companies, JR and Nankai, can leave the island where the airport is located. When you arrive, go up the escalator and cross to the station. It’s only 1 or 2 minutes walk to the train station.
This is the view of JR/Nankai Train station from the bus stops which is at the arrival floor. You just need to go up the escalator or elevator to the 2nd floor.
The bus departs from the arrival floor. The number of the bus stop differs depending on the destination. Near the each bus stop, there are ticket counters for each destination.
How to Get to KYOTO from Kansai Airport
Haruak by JR, and Rapit by Nankai (blue)
JR and buses are convenient to get to Kyoto from Kansai Airport.
JR Limited Express Haruka
JR runs a limited express called Haruka, which goes directly to Kyoto via Tennoji and Shin-Osaka in Osaka city.
If you have a JR Pass, Haruka will be your choice.
JR Haruka trains run every 30 minutes, you can go to Kyoto directly. The fare is 3430 yen for reserved seats and 2900 yen for unreserved seats.
Haruka Discount Ticket:
You can get the reserved seat for 1800 Yen to Kyoto if you purchase with IC card ICOCA (not Suica or Pasmo, has to be Icoca) . If you don’t have ICOCA, you can also purchase ICOCA for 2000 Yen (500 Yen is deposit, so 1500 Yen value) and Haruka Discount Ticket together. It’s 1800 Yen to Kyoto so it’s a great deal. The round trip ticket is 3600 Yen if you return in 14 days. You only can purchase at Kansai Airport station, and need a passport since it’s only for non-Japanese.
You can make online reservation too, but I’m not sure how much it benefits as you cannot read the time after landing at the airport. I’ll put the details about this discount ticket in the description below.
(JR WEST Haruka Discount Ticket details)
The schedule may change from the time of writing. This is the schedule of November 2022.
Airport Bus
You can also go to Kyoto by bus. A bus connects Kansai Airport to Kyoto Station in 1 hour and 30 minutes.
The bus runs once every 40 minutes to an hour. The fare is 2600 yen.
The bus is slightly cheaper than the regular fare of the JR’s Haruka and the you can get on the bus right in front of the arrival gate. However, if I think of the traffic, I don’t find a strong reason to take the bus to Kyoto Station.
The bus ticket is available at the counter in front of the bus stop, which is located in the right outside the arrival floor.
The bus ticket is available at the counter in front of the bus stop, which is located in the right outside the arrival floor.
Regular Train
In case you prefer trains but Haruka is over your budget, you can also take regular train. There are various routes in this case, but JR trains via Osaka is probably the easiest. Just take Kanku Rapid train to JR Osaka Station, and change to Special Rapid Train (Shinkaisoku) to Kyoto. It may have lots of stops, but you only need to change once at JR Osaka Station.
However, if you are going to city center of Kyoto by train, you can take Hankyu Kyoto line from Osaka Umeda station.
| JR Limited Express HARUKA | 3430 Yen for full price
Haruka Discount Ticket : 1800 Yen for non-reserved seats if purchased with Icoca IC Card at the counter ) *also available for JR Pass |
1 hour and 20 minutes |
| Airport Bus | 2600 Yen | 1 hour and 30 mintues |
| Regular Train (Low cost and easy route) Kanku Rapid to Osaka Station, Change to Shin-Kaisoku | 1910 Yen (available for JR Pass) | About 2 hours |
How to Get to OSAKA from Kansai Airport
Transportation to Osaka city depends on where you want to go in Osaka city.
The Map of Osaka City Center
Let’s see the Google map.
Osaka is roughly divided into two areas, Kita (north) are and Minami (south)area, and the center of the north is Umeda, where JR Osaka Station is located.
Umeda also has Osaka-Umeda Station on the Hankyu private railway. So it’s good to know that JR Osaka Station and Umeda are in the same place. All private railways and subways other than JR use the name “Umeda”.
On the other hand, there are cities such as Namba and Tennoji in the south. The famous Dotonbori is within walking distance from Namba. This south side is rather downtown, while north side is more department store and offices.
Shin-Osaka, is where the Shinkansen station is. It’s a little off the city center, and located one station north by JR line.
Depends on where you go in Osaka, the best transportation to take will be different.
The Orange line is Haruka’s route. At this moment, it stops only Tennoji and Shin-Osaka in Osaka City, and doesn’t stop Osaka Station. From Spring 2023, new station is opening in the underground of JR Osaka Station and it will start to make a stop. The black line is JR’s Kanku Rapid, which stops several stations in Osaka City, including Tennoji, Shin-Imamiya, Nishi-Kujo (Transfer to Universal city), JR Osaka Station, and Kyobashi station.
The light blue line is Nankai, both regular trains and the limited express Rapit goes to Namba Terminal. The red line is Osaka Metro Midosuji line, that penetrate the city from the south to the north, going through Tennoji, Namba, Shinsaibashi, Yodoyabashi, Umeda (Right under the JR Osaka Station) and Shin-Osaka. If you go to Osaka City center, you might want to take either JR to Tennoji, or Nankai to Namba, and change to Osaka Metro Midosuji Line, to get closer to your hotel. *The color is just to explain the map, and not equivalent to the line color.
Now that you know the snapshot of Osaka’s map, let’s get to Osaka City.
JR Limited Express Haruka
Limited Express Train Haruka
JR Haruka stops at Tennoji and then Shin-Osaka. If you go to Osaka city, you will have to transfer at Tennoji.
* Right now, Haruka is passing by near the JR Osaka Station and doesn’t stop until Shin-Osaka, this is because of the rail route Haruka is using to head to Kyoto, but JR is opening a new underground platform near JR Osaka Station in 2023, and stop Haruka there. There should be a schedule update in early 2023, and you will be able to get off at Osaka Station.
Haruka Discount Ticket:
You can get the reserved seat for 1600 Yen to Shin-Osaka if you purchase with IC card ICOCA (not Suica or Pasmo, has to be Icoca) . If you don’t have ICOCA, you can also purchase ICOCA for 2000 Yen (500 Yen is deposit, so 1500 Yen value) and Haruka Discount Ticket together. It’s 1200 Yen to Tennoji, and 1600 Yen to Shin-Osaka so it’s a great deal. The round trip ticket is 2400 Yen to Tennoji, and 3200 Yen for Shin-Osaka if you return in 14 days. You only can purchase at Kansai Airport station, and need a passport since it’s only for non-Japanese.
You can make online reservation too, but I’m not sure how much it benefits as you cannot read the time after landing at the airport. I’ll put the details about this discount ticket in the description below.
(JR WEST Haruka Discount Ticket details)
JR Regular Trains
JR also runs a regular train called the Kanku Rapid, and four trains per hour run to Osaka City.
It’s usually bound for Kyobashi Station via Tennoji Station and Osaka Station. It stops at many stations, but you can go to Osaka Station without changing trains. You can transfer to Osaka Metro Midosuji line at Tennoji, and head to the center of Osaka such as Nanba and Shinsaibashi.
Nankai – Regular Train/ Rapit
Nankai’s regular train
If you go to Namba, Nankai is convenient. Nankai runs a regular train and a limited express train called Rapit.
At the moment of making this video, Rapit is running only every one hour and has many stops on the way to Namba, so the reason to use Rapit would be more for the comfort of the seat.
I like trains and I I needed to eat the sandwich I got at the airport, so I used Rapit. It was a great choice to get to Namba. 🙂
Rapit by Nankai
Comparing Cost and Time it takes for major stations in Osaka.
| Destination | Transportation | Cost | Time |
| JR Osaka Station / Umeda Station | JR Regular Train | 1210 Yen | 1 h 10 min. |
| Nankai Regular Train to Namba + Osaka Metro | 1160 Yen | 1 h 10 min | |
| JR Haruka (Spring 2023 ~ ) | – | – | |
| Airport Bus | 1600 Yen | 1 h | |
| Namba Station | Nankai Regular Train | 930 Yen | 46 min |
| Nankai Rapit | 1450 Yen (1290 Yen for discounted ticket) | 40 min. | |
| Shin Osaka Station | JR Haruka | 2910 Yen (Reserved seat) | 51 min. |
| Nankai Regular Train to Namba + Osaka Metro | 1210 Yen | 1 h 15 min. | |
| Universal City Station | JR Regular Train to Nishi Kujo + JR to Universal City | 1210 Yen | 1h 15 min. |
| Airport Bus (runs infrequently) | 1600 Yen | 1h 10 min. |
If you want to go to a hotel along the Midosuji Subway Line, it would be best to get off at Tennoji if you’re on the JR line, or get off at Namba if you’re on the Nankai line, and transfer to the Midosuji line.
After Thoughts
I landed KIX, and the airport was still empty comparing with Tokyo’s airports. However, it was great to see some foreign tourists or business users are back to Japan. One thing I notice is at the Kansai Airport, I saw twice that travelers are asking direction but station attendant or bus attendant seems don’t understand English. Probably they are not used to speak English to explain something outside their specialized job.
It might help to study just a little bit about the direction and transportation before you land Kansai Airport.
Thank you for reading!
Other articles you might be interested in:
How to get from Narita Airport (NRT)to Tokyo city center
Comments