Traveling: Japan 2025

Monday, 20 October 2025

Japan 2025 - Part 6

From Osaka To Kyoto

Thursday - October 9th 2025

Although we had tickets for Universal Studios Japan for today as well, we decided to skip the park and take an earlier train to Kyoto, because we did everything we wanted to do already yesterday. So we slept in and then we had breakfast at Starbucks and before we went back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and to check out. We took the train from Universal City to Shin-Osaka station and from there the Shinkansen to Kyoto. It was just a short train ride, but we still had to get some snacks like potatoe chips and onigiri.

Breakfast

The Singulari Hotel

Universal CityWalk

Osaka

Osaka Station

Shinkansen

Snacks

Shinkansen

Around noon we arrived at Kyoto Station and from there it was just a short walk to our hotel. Like in 2018 we stayed at the Sakura Terrace The Gallery. The room wasn't ready upon arrival and so we just left our luggage at the hotel and headed into the city. Our first stop was the Nidec Kyoto Tower to check out the observation deck. Thanks to the beautiful weather we had a wonderful view over Kyoto from the top. Afterwards it was time for a coffee break and of course we got iced coffees at Starbucks.

Kyoto Station

Sakura Terrace The Gallery Hotel

Kyoto Tower

Starbucks

Later we walked to Higashi Hongan-ji a nearby temple we had seen from Kyoto Tower. This Buddhist temple complex is among the world's largest wooden buildings and it was indeed pretty impressive. Since we only had some onigiris throughout the day, we decided to get nachos and a couple of beers at the Hard Rock Cafe Kyoto. So we took the bus to Gion and crossed off another Hard Rock Cafe on our list. Afterwards we returned to the hotel and could finally check in. We were a little bit disappointed with our room, because compared to our last stay it was rather small and just not as inviting as we remembered it to be. The hotel still offered a free drink for its guests and of course we headed down to the bar to grab our drinks. Afterwards we went to Chabuton, a self-order ramen spot located inside the Yodabashi electronics store. We had already been there several times during our last visit and the ramen soups were still as good as we remembered. Then we just strolled through the huge store before getting donuts and returning to the hotel.