The JR Haruka Limited Express is one of the most convenient ways to get from Kyoto to Kansai International Airport (KIX) in Osaka.
It’s a straight shot from Kyoto Station to the airport, with just a few short stops along the way. The entire journey only takes around 1.5 hours, and the seats are spacious, clean and comfortable.
More importantly, if you’re a die-hard Hello Kitty fan, you get to be accompanied by your favourite kawaii kitten throughout the journey.
In the past, these specially-decorated trains used to be few and far between. But given their immense popularity, JR West has wisely put more of them into circulation.
So much so that almost all JR Haruka Limited Express trains now sport the Hello Kitty livery. The Wife and I prefer Studio Ghibli over Sanrio, but it’s always fun to ride in one of these trains.
We had just checked out of the beautiful Shiraume ryokan in Gion, hopped on a cab and reached Kyoto Station inside of 15 minutes.
Even though Kyoto Station doesn’t come close to the chaos that’s constantly swirling within Tokyo Station, it is still quite busy.
The departure area was full of people, many of whom were clearly foreign tourists struggling to figure out how to secure tickets.
Typically, we just find the main ticketing office for the correct railway, head over to join the queue and get whatever we need from the sales counter.
It takes a bit longer than using the self service machines, but we find it easier to transact with an actual human being.
However, the JR West office was jam packed with a line of people spilling out the entrance. Our usual approach would have taken way too much time, so it was time for Plan B.
Several customer service staff were stationed throughout the hall, providing assistance in English. They were perpetually surrounded by tourists peppering them with questions.
We overheard a group asking one of them how to buy JR Haruka tickets to Kansai Airport, and conveniently camped out behind them to eavesdrop.
The process sounded easy enough, and so we made our way to the large bank of machines that spanned an entire wall.
Those that accepted credit cards had a long and snaking queue, so we chose the significantly less popular “Cash only” kiosks.
When using an automated system in a foreign country, the most important step is to change the display language to one you’re familiar with.
It’s so important that they even pasted a conspicuous, brightly-coloured sticker in the shape of an arrow that indicated where to press first. Languages available include English, Chinese, Korean and, of course, Japanese.
If you can’t read any of those, then sorry, I’m afraid you’ll have to walk all the way to the airport. It takes about 20 hours, so make sure you start early.
Or… you can simply fire up Google Translate on your phone.
Despite the cash only label, I was surprised that there were other choices besides physical paper money. Also accepted were IC Cards (Icoca, Suica etc) and QR Code payments (Alipay, WeChat Pay).
Since we still had quite of lot of Japanese yen notes left, and this was the very last day of our trip, I opted to feed the machine with cold, hard cash.
The next step is arguably the most important one, and may not be immediately obvious.
You need to choose "Limited Express" on the screen, and when it displays the options available, press "Haruka from Yasu to Kansai-Airport".
It will then show you a list of possible destinations and if, like us, you’re heading to Kansai International Airport (KIX), choose "Kansai-Airport".
Note that two tickets are actually required per person. First is a regular train ticket, and second is a separate one for the limited express service. To keep things simple, we bought the "Ticket with Limited Express Ticket".
Yes, we could have just gotten the limited express tickets only, and relied on our Suica IC Cards to get through the platform gates. But we still had quite a bit of cash left, and this was a good chance to use it.
The next screen showed how much I had to pay, but it indicated the price for just 1 Adult. There didn’t seem to be anywhere for me to change that to 2 Adults.
After a brief moment of confusion, I noticed a column of physical buttons to the left of the main screen. I had to press one of them to indicate the total number of adults (and/or children).
The user interface seemed a bit clunky and counter-intuitive, but hey, whatever gets the job done.
After feeding in sufficient amount of money and retrieving my change, the machine proceeded to spit out four physical tickets for the two of us.
Two ¥1,910 regular train tickets, needed to get us through the platform gates; and two ¥1,200 limited express tickets to be shown to the train conductor inside the train upon request.
With the tickets sorted, we headed to the 7-Eleven on the other side of the atrium to procure snacks for our trip. The journey was too short for a full-on bento, plus we were still quite full from our traditional breakfast at Shiraume.
Still, there were plenty of other savoury and sweet choices, including the crowd-favourite tamago sando and ever-popular ichigo sando.
You can never go wrong with the classics, and I picked up one of each.
After passing through the gates, finding the correct platform for our train was super easy. Signs were clear and following them was straightforward.
Since we had bought unreserved seats, we could only sit in Cars 5, 6 and 7 and waited at the appropriate section of the platform.
We didn’t have to wait long before our train rolled in.
It was immediately obvious that this was the right one. Even if we didn’t double-check the number and timing, there was no way of making a mistake.
The world’s most famous cat adorned not only the train’s exterior but also every seat and wall within its interior.
I don’t know if she changes her costume over time, but her Fall/Winter 2024 ensemble — a navy kimono with ribbon motifs — was both classic and elegant.
Until they come up with a Totoro train in the future, it’s probably the most kawaii way to get from Kyoto Station to Kansai Airport.
Our journey was mundane and uneventful, just the way I like it.
Yet, the silent presence of the beloved white kitten with her iconic red ribbon added a whimsical touch to an otherwise ordinary ride.
