How Do I Get Around Kyoto?

I'm going to break it down for you, as simple as I can manage it. The what, how, when and whys.

There are three main modes of transportation for the on-shoestring-budget traveller in Kyoto, in order of least-costliness:

• Bus
• Cycling
• Rail

First thing's first. Assuming you arrive in Kyoto like most people do (ie. by train), your first port of reference in Kyoto will be the Kyoto Station. Find the Visitor Information Centre, get a bus route map and a railway service map. Get a city map too, if they have any available or bring your own from home. (I forgot to check and ask for the city map and mostly relied on GoogleMaps on my iPhone to get me around Kyoto; roaming data plans kind of add up, even if you manage to get partner-network package deals.) Alternatively, some hostels will stock the bus route maps and will give you a copy for free.

BUS

Far and away THE cheapest way to get around Kyoto, especially if all you want to do is stay within the City (excluding the odd jaunt to nearby attractions outside City route limits, like Arashiyama. But fret not, there's a tip for that in the next paragraph.)

Kyoto City Bus
One-Day Pass

Whole-day Kyoto City Bus passes (¥500/adult) will give you unlimited rides on the City Bus routes, within the city limits. (The limits will be highlighted on the bus route map, either in different coloured backgrounds or by thick red lines.) The routes are quite extensive and will pretty much cover all the major attractions in Kyoto itself. For visiting attractions outside of the city route limits, you may still use your day-pass but will have to top up a few minor-hundred yen to make up for the extra fare, each way.

How to use it: Day-passes are available from vending machines at the bus stands just outside Kyoto Station's Central Gate. Walk up to one, put in your yen, select your pass and you're set to go.

Using a Kyoto City bus: Look up on the bus route map where you want to go and which buses numbers serve that stop. In front of Kyoto Station, find the corresponding platform your bus departs from. (eg. Bus #73 leaves from platform C5, #5 leaves from platform A1, etc.) You may have to go around a bit to find the right one - I never managed to properly decipher the system - but most of the major attractions will have their departure points displayed in English over the correct platforms anyway.

Get on the bus through the back door, listen to the announcement of each next stop carefully to know when to ding the bell (often, but not always, there will also be an LED-display of the next stop in alternating Japanese/English at the front of the bus, or ask the driver, if in doubt) and get off the bus through the front door, putting your day-pass into the fare machine next to the driver to be validated (and remember to collect it!) before you get off.

If you're travelling outside the City limits, the additional fare required will be displayed after you've inserted your pass into the machine. Drop your yen into the top of the machine, collect your pass and you're done. Easy peasy.

One-way trips will cost ¥220, each trip. You want to use this only for single trips, assuming you have plans to get around Kyoto by other methods (eg. cycling, by foot, hiring a car or motorcycle, or being chauffeured around, you lucky bastard.) You don't need to pre-purchase tickets for single trips. Just get on the bus and drop money into the fare machine at the front of the bus when you get off. It would be quicker if you have exact change in coins, but the machines will take ¥1,000 notes & dispense change as well.

Child fares (for bus, rail tickets, attractions, etc) tend to generally be half the price of adults fares/fees.

A Kyoto City Bus Route Map
The City routes "limits" are those within the green spaces for background.
You'll need to pay a little extra to get to the places in the yellow-background spaces.

Here are a couple of Bus Tour maps, thoughtfully planned out by Kyoto City. They're also the same sheets given out for free by hostels & the Visitor Information centres.
Bus Navi Tours
Bus Navi Map

Who says I can't get stoned, plan a trip to Japan alone?

After original plans for my Osaka trip fell through (whereby I was completely dependent on someone else planning it), I decided that I would plan it myself and make it a trip of a lifetime. I've harboured a desire to see the sakura bloom for close to a decade now, and I'd be damned if I let something so ridiculously inconsequential as a lack of a planner get in the way of me and seeing the sakura!

So, two months before I was due to get on that plane, I started reading up on Japan. And it was just.. mind-numbing.

Firstly, not only was there a stupendous amount of things to do, places to see, advice to try this and that, finding accommodations.. there was also trying to figure our the mere logistics of things. Like transportation. First rule of travelling: how do I get around?

This is something NOBODY seems to be able to summarily tell me about Kyoto, in all my Googling. How does one get around? There seemed to be a bajillion and one options. As a result, I was determined to write about it, in the hopes that my own experience will be able to help someone else.

So. Here's a little FAQ list. All the things I wish someone had told me before I even got on that plane:

Transport in Kyoto