The links stop at every rail, taxi and walking change. The guide remains authoritative for both reserved trains, the allowances, queue caps and the cruise weather gate.
JAPAN 2026
TEMPLES
LANTERNS
LANES
NEON
KYOTO TO NARA BEFORE HALF PAST EIGHT
THE GREAT SOUTH GATE
2026
DAY IX · 10 SEPTEMBER · 奈良 → 大阪
THE OLDEST CITY, THEN THE LOUDEST
Two cities in one day, and the first one has to be bought before it starts: Kintetsu sells no unreserved seat on a limited express, so the 07:50 out of Kyoto is a ticket with our names on it. It lands at 08:25, an hour ahead of the coaches. The morning is a gate, a bronze Buddha and a lantern corridor; the afternoon is merchant lanes and a chair; and the evening ends on a canal, afloat, at the exact minute the sun goes down.
LIMITED EXPRESS — A SEAT TICKET AND A BASIC FARE, BOTH REQUIRED
III
KINTETSU-NARA → THE TŌDAI-JI APPROACH
ABOUT FOUR MINUTES ON A CITY ROUTE; NO TOURIST LOOP MIDWEEK
IV
KINTETSU-NARA 15:53 → OSAKA-NAMBA 16:36
DIRECT RAPID EXPRESS, ¥680 EACH — NOTHING TO RESERVE ON THIS ONE
V
NAMBA → YODOYABASHI
METRO MIDŌSUJI LINE — WHICH IS WHY 19:15 IS A HARD DEPARTURE
VI
YODOYABASHI 20:01 → SANJŌ 20:53
KEIHAN LINER, ALL CARS RESERVED; MISS IT AND THE NEXT LANDS AT 21:41
Two reserved products bracket the day. A Kintetsu limited-express ticket is valid only for the train printed on it; bought online the seat is chosen and the train can be changed three times free, bought at a window it changes once. The Keihan Liner home is the same idea — every car reserved, seats released fourteen days ahead at ten in the morning, which for the 20:01 means 27 August.
From April to October the Daibutsuden opens at half past seven and takes cash only, ¥800 a head — which is why 08:45 to 09:45 is an hour inside it with the coach parties still on the road. The Great South Gate before it costs nothing and is worth the stop: two guardians carved in 1203 face each other across the passage rather than out at the road. Then the quiet part. Nigatsu-dō stands up the slope behind the hall, free, open around the clock, and its terrace is on the city's own list of the views of Nara.
The forest-edge walk down from Nigatsu-dō comes out at the shrine some time before eleven. Ordinary worship is free and starts at half past six, but the ¥700 special worship is the one worth the money: it goes inside the cloisters and ends at Fujinami-no-ya, a small hall hung with lanterns and lit as it is during the two lantern festivals a year. It runs 09:00 to 16:00. On the 1st, 11th and 21st of any month it stays shut until noon — and the 10th is not one of them.
A short taxi down from the shrine — ¥1,500 is an allowance we carry, not a quote anyone gave us — and then a small counter shop whose Thursday lunch runs 11:00 to 14:00. It takes no reservation, takes cash, and stops when the pot is empty. So the rule for the day is a forty-five minute cap on the queue: past that we walk to Genkishin, the roomier Nara-ingredient fallback that stays open until eight. Two bowls come to something between ¥2,300 and ¥2,800.
Two hours of merchant streets from 12:40. Nigiwai-no-Ie is a preserved townhouse, free to enter, shut on Wednesdays but not on this one. Then the lanes around Gangō-ji, then Nakagawa Masashichi's flagship — as much an archive of Nara crafts as a shop, open until seven. Ikeda Gankōdō is optional and is the first thing cut if lunch ran long; Nigiwai-no-Ie is the second. What is never cut is the chair: Rokumei Coffee is one minute from the Kintetsu platform, seats forty-two, takes no reservation, and hands us back to the 15:53 rested.
Namba at 16:36 puts us at a counter before the evening fills it. Daruma's Hōzenji branch opens 11:30 on a weekday and seats fifty-two: beef, shrimp, asparagus, lotus root, quail egg, seasonal hamo and doteyaki, and no second dip in the shared sauce. If the wait runs past ten minutes the plate becomes a snack, because the boat is what the evening protects. Then two minutes of stone lane, where the Mizukake Fudō stands under a coat of moss because everyone who passes throws water at it. No okonomiyaki tonight — that was decided, not forgotten.
Check in at 17:50 at the Dōtonbori Nihonbashi pier. The boat leaves at 18:00 and is back twenty minutes later, which puts the whole of sunset — 18:13 in Osaka on this date — on the water. Night sailings run every half hour until 21:30 at ¥2,000 a head, roofed against rain, and the operator says plainly that the river or the weather can cancel one without notice and that reservations come before walk-ups. Then Akaoni for raw-octopus takoyaki, a shop that keeps beef and pork out of everything it makes, and half an hour of Riverwalk, Glico and Ebisu Bridge before a hard 19:15.
The fifth of six Kyoto nights, so the front desk is owed nothing today except one thing. Two cases go from here to the Nihonbashi hotel by Yamato, ¥2,630 each, and Rinn has to telephone before the courier takes them — best done on the evening of the 9th, at the latest before we walk out at 06:50. Not on the way back: we return at about 21:05.
¥8,560
TRANSPORT, PARTY ALL SIX LEGS · NOTHING BOOKED YET
¥3,000
ADMISSIONS, PARTY TŌDAI-JI ¥800 EACH · KASUGA ¥700 EACH
¥4,000
WONDER CRUISE, PARTY ¥2,000 EACH — SELECTED, NOT BOOKED
¥24–27,000
DAY TOTAL, TWO TRAVELLERS FOOD ON TOP · NO SHOPPING OR FORWARDING
IF THE DAY SLIPS — the 15:53 and the 20:01 are the frame and everything else bends around them. Lunch running long → cut Ikeda Gankōdō, then Nigiwai-no-Ie; Rokumei and the train are not negotiable. Menya K queuing past forty-five minutes → Genkishin. Daruma past ten → a snack, and keep the lane and the boat. Cruise cancelled by weather or river → a longer Hōzenji and Dōtonbori food block instead. Heavy rain or real fatigue → drop the boat and the takoyaki and keep both trains.
The links stop at every rail, taxi and walking change. The guide remains authoritative for both reserved trains, the allowances, queue caps and the cruise weather gate.
JAPAN 2026TEMPLESLANTERNSLANESNEONKYOTO TO NARA BEFORE HALF PAST EIGHTTHE GREAT SOUTH GATE2026
DAY IX · 10 SEPTEMBER · 奈良 → 大阪
THE OLDEST CITY, THEN THE LOUDEST
Two cities in one day, and the first one has to be bought before it starts: Kintetsu sells no unreserved seat on a limited express, so the 07:50 out of Kyoto is a ticket with our names on it. It lands at 08:25, an hour ahead of the coaches. The morning is a gate, a bronze Buddha and a lantern corridor; the afternoon is merchant lanes and a chair; and the evening ends on a canal, afloat, at the exact minute the sun goes down.
LIMITED EXPRESS — A SEAT TICKET AND A BASIC FARE, BOTH REQUIRED
III
KINTETSU-NARA → THE TŌDAI-JI APPROACH
ABOUT FOUR MINUTES ON A CITY ROUTE; NO TOURIST LOOP MIDWEEK
IV
KINTETSU-NARA 15:53 → OSAKA-NAMBA 16:36
DIRECT RAPID EXPRESS, ¥680 EACH — NOTHING TO RESERVE ON THIS ONE
V
NAMBA → YODOYABASHI
METRO MIDŌSUJI LINE — WHICH IS WHY 19:15 IS A HARD DEPARTURE
VI
YODOYABASHI 20:01 → SANJŌ 20:53
KEIHAN LINER, ALL CARS RESERVED; MISS IT AND THE NEXT LANDS AT 21:41
Two reserved products bracket the day. A Kintetsu limited-express ticket is valid only for the train printed on it; bought online the seat is chosen and the train can be changed three times free, bought at a window it changes once. The Keihan Liner home is the same idea — every car reserved, seats released fourteen days ahead at ten in the morning, which for the 20:01 means 27 August.
SELECTED, NOT YET BOUGHT近鉄特急 — THE 07:50 TO NARATHIRTY-FIVE MINUTES
CASH AT THE WINDOW大仏殿 — THE HALL OPENS AT 07:30¥800 EACH
QUARTER TO NINE · 南大門 → 二月堂
AN HOUR BEFORE THE COACHES, THEN UPHILL
From April to October the Daibutsuden opens at half past seven and takes cash only, ¥800 a head — which is why 08:45 to 09:45 is an hour inside it with the coach parties still on the road. The Great South Gate before it costs nothing and is worth the stop: two guardians carved in 1203 face each other across the passage rather than out at the road. Then the quiet part. Nigatsu-dō stands up the slope behind the hall, free, open around the clock, and its terrace is on the city's own list of the views of Nara.
The forest-edge walk down from Nigatsu-dō comes out at the shrine some time before eleven. Ordinary worship is free and starts at half past six, but the ¥700 special worship is the one worth the money: it goes inside the cloisters and ends at Fujinami-no-ya, a small hall hung with lanterns and lit as it is during the two lantern festivals a year. It runs 09:00 to 16:00. On the 1st, 11th and 21st of any month it stays shut until noon — and the 10th is not one of them.
INSIDE THE CLOISTERS釣燈籠 — LANTERNS ALONG THE CORRIDORWALK-IN, ¥700
WALK-IN ONLYラーメン — A BOWL, NOT THE SHOP'S OWN11:30 TO 12:40
HALF PAST ELEVEN · 麺屋 K
CASH, NO BOOKING, AND IT SELLS OUT
A short taxi down from the shrine — ¥1,500 is an allowance we carry, not a quote anyone gave us — and then a small counter shop whose Thursday lunch runs 11:00 to 14:00. It takes no reservation, takes cash, and stops when the pot is empty. So the rule for the day is a forty-five minute cap on the queue: past that we walk to Genkishin, the roomier Nara-ingredient fallback that stays open until eight. Two bowls come to something between ¥2,300 and ¥2,800.
Two hours of merchant streets from 12:40. Nigiwai-no-Ie is a preserved townhouse, free to enter, shut on Wednesdays but not on this one. Then the lanes around Gangō-ji, then Nakagawa Masashichi's flagship — as much an archive of Nara crafts as a shop, open until seven. Ikeda Gankōdō is optional and is the first thing cut if lunch ran long; Nigiwai-no-Ie is the second. What is never cut is the chair: Rokumei Coffee is one minute from the Kintetsu platform, seats forty-two, takes no reservation, and hands us back to the 15:53 rested.
TWO HOURS, TWO CUTSならまち — CHARMS UNDER THE EAVES12:40 TO 14:30
WATER, NOT INCENSE水掛不動 — GREEN FROM THE LADLES17:25 TO 17:45
QUARTER TO FIVE · だるま → 法善寺横丁
A PLATE FIRST, THEN THE ONLY QUIET LANE
Namba at 16:36 puts us at a counter before the evening fills it. Daruma's Hōzenji branch opens 11:30 on a weekday and seats fifty-two: beef, shrimp, asparagus, lotus root, quail egg, seasonal hamo and doteyaki, and no second dip in the shared sauce. If the wait runs past ten minutes the plate becomes a snack, because the boat is what the evening protects. Then two minutes of stone lane, where the Mizukake Fudō stands under a coat of moss because everyone who passes throws water at it. No okonomiyaki tonight — that was decided, not forgotten.
Check in at 17:50 at the Dōtonbori Nihonbashi pier. The boat leaves at 18:00 and is back twenty minutes later, which puts the whole of sunset — 18:13 in Osaka on this date — on the water. Night sailings run every half hour until 21:30 at ¥2,000 a head, roofed against rain, and the operator says plainly that the river or the weather can cancel one without notice and that reservations come before walk-ups. Then Akaoni for raw-octopus takoyaki, a shop that keeps beef and pork out of everything it makes, and half an hour of Riverwalk, Glico and Ebisu Bridge before a hard 19:15.
The fifth of six Kyoto nights, so the front desk is owed nothing today except one thing. Two cases go from here to the Nihonbashi hotel by Yamato, ¥2,630 each, and Rinn has to telephone before the courier takes them — best done on the evening of the 9th, at the latest before we walk out at 06:50. Not on the way back: we return at about 21:05.
¥8,560
TRANSPORT, PARTY ALL SIX LEGS · NOTHING BOOKED YET
¥3,000
ADMISSIONS, PARTY TŌDAI-JI ¥800 EACH · KASUGA ¥700 EACH
¥4,000
WONDER CRUISE, PARTY ¥2,000 EACH — SELECTED, NOT BOOKED
¥24–27,000
DAY TOTAL, TWO TRAVELLERS FOOD ON TOP · NO SHOPPING OR FORWARDING
IF THE DAY SLIPS — the 15:53 and the 20:01 are the frame and everything else bends around them. Lunch running long → cut Ikeda Gankōdō, then Nigiwai-no-Ie; Rokumei and the train are not negotiable. Menya K queuing past forty-five minutes → Genkishin. Daruma past ten → a snack, and keep the lane and the boat. Cruise cancelled by weather or river → a longer Hōzenji and Dōtonbori food block instead. Heavy rain or real fatigue → drop the boat and the takoyaki and keep both trains.
