Bicycle or Bus in Kyoto

Hi everybody,

Is it possible to visit TOP10 places in Kyoto using bicycle during 1 day? When cycling offroad, then usually my time in competitions is something like 3 hours per 60km and on the road ... 100km per 3,5 hours. Do the bike rentals also provide locks or is bicycle theft uncommon in Japan?

Thanks,
Lauri

Only a helicopter might allow you to visit the top 10 sights of Kyoto in one day. It is not practically possible by either bus or bicycle. The sights of Kyoto are far apart from each other.

Uji: do you mean that is impossible to cover 10 kilometers in 30 minutes and to have average speed about 20km/h (with good sportsbike)? Because of traffic, population density etc. On the Google Earth it seems, that the distances of those places from the Central Station are in the ... 20km radius. for example, isn't Niho Castle about only 5km from the Central Station?

Thanks,
Lauri

On my first trip to Kyoto I was met at Kyoto Station by a friend who had rented a couple of bikes for us. I stashed my luggage in a locker and took off with him to see several temples. I'm a pretty experienced biker but Kyoto's traffic can be daunting. My friend knew a lot of side streets to get to out first destination but if you're not familiar with Kyoto you may find it frustratingly slow. A lot of the bike lanes are on sidewalks.
As Uji said it is going to be hard to see so much of Kyoto on a bike in one day. If you spent an hour at each of 10 spot, plus the time to get to each one, well, that's going to take a good chunk out of a 24 hour day.
We did lock our bikes, since they were rented, we did not want to take the chance of them being stolen. Most of the bikes commuters use look alike and did not look expensive.

Lauri, YOU CAN BIKE in Kyoto but you will only be able to see a few sights. Do you bike in a big city? I live in a 2.5 million town in North America and travel often to Japan and know that it is impossible to zip from here to there on a bike in all these places. Side streets in Japan are hard to navigate as they are narrow and don't have sidewalks, only a painted line to define a narrow "virtual" sidewalk, used by pedestrians and parked cars. On major streets bikes run-illegaly-on sidewalks also used by lots of pedestrians. Going to Kiomizu temple from Kyoto station you will first use very busy avenues and streets then take narrow steep streets up the hill to the temple. These streets are very crowded during the day.

In my observation, I think rider would be more safely to ride on the footpath as most of local riders do, however there are many pedestrians around which can be quite slow...

I think the original poster is completely forgetting about the time it takes to LOOK at places... if you rush around, you might be able to GET to places (still one day is waaay too short a time!), but you won't enjoy them...

Thanks for answers, everybody! Top10 in one day is overkill, of course (i have planned 2 days Kyoto, 1 Nara, 2 Osaka), at the moment I haven't decided, which places exactly - first time in Japan, staying 7 nights in Nagoya). I just was confused, that some forums suggest that bike is a good option and another tells, that for every place you should take a bus. So i was checking distances in the Google Earth and found out, that for example this castle is only about 4-5km from the central station - isn't it quite easy to walk (if fitness level is OK, not something like Oprah has).

Lauri

Nagoya: How about taking the subway, at least on the way back? see: www.japan-guide.com/e/e3300.html 4.5 km one way or 9 km to return to the starting point. 9 km= 2.5 hrs walk, not counting stopping in a couple of places. In Japan it always take longer than one think to visit this or that place. A temple or shrine, for example, is not just one building surrounded by stores and houses, as a European cathedral, but many buildings in a park. Myoshin-ji in Kyoto, for example, has 36 temples in one park! Nara: I found that one good way to see it is as a 1/2 day trip from Kyoto. Take the JR Nara line from the main JR Kyoto station early enough in the morning (8 am)and stop at Fushimi-Inari. Have a look at some of the buildings then walk up the mountain paths under thousands of vermilion torii. This is fascinating. It takes from 1 hr to 3 hrs to go around. At the very least go as far as the viewpoint where you can see Kyoto way down and far away. Bring water or juice plus a snack from the convenience store near JR station at Fushimi-Inari. After that shrine take the train to Nara. Visiting the park with the deer, the Great Buddha, the Kasuga shrine and a couple of other places will take you 3-4 hrs at the very least. On the way back to JR station try to walk in the area on the other side of the big pond as there are old houses and few tourists.
have a look at urbanrail.net (click on Asia) for maps and info on all the transit systems in Japan. Check skyscrapercity kansai for great photos on Kyoto and the Kansai. Osaka has its own section, same with Tokyo.

You can also rent a (50cc or 100cc) scooter in Kyoto at KyotoRentalScooter.com for Yen 4000 1 day or Yen 6000 2 days or Yen 8000 for 3 days! I did this last year november, and it was really great. These things are really fast! I was able to move around in Kyoto very quickly and didn't loose much time with travelling by bus, subway or on foot. I think this is the fastest way to see as much as possible of Kyoto.