But many tourists rely on public transport and buses are often packed and queues at major stops are so long. During the busy seasons, they are massive. So today, I would like to take a suggestion for better public transport in Kyoto.
The long queue for the Express 100 buses at Kyoto Station
City Bus employee pushing passengers onto bus
Passengers left at the bus depot for busy Express 101 bus
Seeing the above pictures, Japanese buses are smaller than those running in the western countries. Therefore all passengers waiting a bus service sometimes cannot accommodated on a bus at once. Even the city council offers extra services on the busy seasons, some passengers are left at bus stops because buses are full.
Beautiful cherry blossoms attracting many tourists
When I went to York in England to see my girlfriend, I was surprised to see double decker buses being served in a small city; its population is approximate 200,000.
Then Kyoto has around 1.3 million people, so why not having double decker city buses? These buses accommodate many passengers so tourists would face shorter queues and be able to visit more places. And their trips will be more pleasant.
On the other hand, some tour buses are operated in Kyoto.
Sky Bus offers tours exploring tourist attractions with double decker buses. But prices are not reasonable. An afternoon four-hour tour visiting Golden Pavilion and Kiyomizu Temple costs 4,000 yen. Admission to the Golden Pavilion is included; however passengers are charged extra cost to get into the latter temple.
Sky Bus
A tourism organisation runs tourist bus services called K-Loop. Passengers need a one day K-Loop pass and then can hop on and off anywhere and anytime on its routes. But it costs 2,300 yen with English audio guidance while a Japanese counterpart is offered at 1,800 yen. And their vehicles are city buses and not coaches. Also their drivers seem not to speak English.
K-Loop
As many tourists purchase Kyoto City one-day bus passes, I strongly suggest city council to purchase double decker buses serving on busy routes such as to Kiyomizu Temple, Gion, Silver and Golden Pavilions.
Please do not hesitate to comment with your experience travelling on the bus in Kyoto as well as your general opinions. Happy travel everyone!!
I think that your comments on double decker buses are very valid Yoshi as Kyoto is such a vast city and many tourists as well as locals will tire of such crowded buses. York, My home city in the UK (and where you visited me) is nowhere near the same scale as Kyoto, yet, as it is a tourist city, I cannot imagine how hectic public transport would be without the double decker buses. Hopefully, in the near future and by the time you and I visit Kyoto together, let's hope that double decker buses will be introduced making life easier for everyone. I love reading your blogs and will continue to follow you as an avid reader.
ReplyDeleteHi Katie. Thanks for reading my blog and making a comment. I agree with you many tourists and locals are sick and tired of being in long queues and crowded buses. I really think introducing double decker buses is important and needed. It's good to visit other countries and to see different stuffs and learn good things from there. I hope too the city bus will have double decker buses when we visit Kyoto together in the near future :-)
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