This short trip to Kansai, Japan was one of our latest trips before leaving Korea.
Jordi already had been there two times before. One in 2009 with friends, and another time in 2013 with his parents and his brother. Both on summer time.
This time, since Hyekyong had never been there, we wanted to try that in winter. We had some days off and decided to visit Nara, Koyasan, and Osaka. We discarded Kyoto because we already had been there before one or two times.
Hard to understand, but it switches to English after some seconds!
Easy to see!
Before starting our big trip, and knowing we would not go to Japan in a while, Jordi wanted Hyekyong to experience the magical and beautiful Koyasan. But that will come later. First, we landed in Kansai International Airport (KIX). This time, we prepared quite well in advance. We didn’t have much time there and we wanted to get the best out of it. So, first we decided the places to go: Nara, Koya Mountain and Osaka city. We booked the accommodations with Booking and checked some places to eat on Tripadvisor. We marked on a map the restaurants and type of food around the areas we would be visiting. This way we would save time deciding what to eat and trying to find the places.
Kansai Thru Pass. Totally worthy if you travel around Kansai!
The first day we landed early in the morning and thanks to the Kansai Thru Pass that we bought before at Tourbaksa we could take most of the train, subway and bus lines in the Kansai area. From KIX the easiest way to Nara is via Namba Station in Osaka. The we transfer to the Kintetsu-Nara line and that was it! We used Google Maps to plan our schedule. Japan transportation is very punctual and reliable, and Google showing all the timetables in advance makes it easier and convenient to plan in advance and not to worry about rushing or missing a train.
Thank you for making things easy, Google Maps!
P.S: The booking.com links on this post will give you some discount and will give us some discount too. Use them and we both win! Thank you!