Central Kyoto · Kyoto StationNo.1205★★Open in map →
Kyoto Station Building
Kyoto's main station is also a building to look at. Behind the concourse a glass-roofed canyon opens upward, and a run of free public plazas climbs from the fourth floor to a rooftop terrace over the city.
- FromOsaka Station
- ~30 minJR Special Rapid from Osaka
- Get off atKyoto Station (JR Kyoto Line)
- On foot
- Kyoto Station Building
The sweet spot
This is the busiest building in the city, not a hidden one. What gets missed is that its upper half is free public space. Most travellers cross the concourse and go straight out to the taxi rank, without ever climbing the staircase above their heads.
Where it is
90 more notes in Kyoto · open the map →What to look for — in walking order
- Muromachi-koji Plazathe fourth-floor square at the foot of the staircase, used as a covered open-air stage
- The grand staircase171 steps rising 35 metres in one straight run up the western wall of the concourse
- Daiku Hiroba rooftop terracea planted roof garden at the top of the steps, open to the sky over the city
- The Skywaya glazed corridor crossing the tenth floor, glass on both sides above the void
- Karasuma-koji Plazaa fourth-floor opening on the north face, framed on Kyoto Tower across the road
How to actually get there
- Osaka Station → Kyoto Station (JR Kyoto Line, Special Rapid, about 30 minutes).
- Central concourse → fourth-floor Muromachi-koji Plaza, at the foot of the staircase (escalators on the west side).
- Climb the staircase to the rooftop terrace, then turn back east along the tenth-floor Skyway.
- Come down the north side to the Karasuma-koji Plaza and out to the station front.
- JR Kyoto Line, direct from Osaka Station
- Osaka Station →(JR Kyoto Line, Special Rapid)→ Kyoto Station, about 30 minutes, with Special Rapid and Rapid services running through the day. The train arrives inside the building itself, so there is no walk at the far end.
- Return from Kyoto Station
- The same platforms run back towards Osaka all day, and the Shinkansen platforms on the south side run towards Shin-Osaka and Tokyo. Service thins out late in the evening, so check the departure board before you settle in on the steps.
About the place
The building sits directly over the tracks at the southern edge of central Kyoto. Its centre is not a shop but a void: a concourse left open all the way to the roof, with a stone staircase climbing the western wall of it. The plazas are stacked around that void. There is an event square at the foot of the stairs, a planted terrace on the roof at the top, and a glazed corridor slung along the tenth floor between the two. Shops, a hotel and a theatre fill the wings, but the vertical route through the middle is public space. None of it charges admission, so the walk up and back costs nothing.
How to enjoy it
Come up early if you can. The rooftop terrace looks southwest across the city, which is the side the morning sun lights first, and the staircase is quiet before the shops open. The other good window is after dark, when the steps are lit and people sit on them above the concourse. Either way the climb and the view cost nothing.
Background & history
A station has stood on this site since 1877, when the first Kyoto Station opened as a red-brick building. It was replaced twice over the century that followed, and the present structure is the fourth. The architect Hiroshi Hara designed it, and it opened in 1997 with the JR Kyoto Isetan department store in the west wing and the Hotel Granvia Kyoto and the Kyoto Theatre in the east. Shinkansen platforms sit on the southern side of the same building.
Before you go
- Cash
- The plazas, the staircase and the Skyway are free to walk. JR Kyoto Station takes IC cards such as ICOCA and Suica as well as cash. The department store, the theatre, the hotel and the restaurants inside are all separate.
- Before you go
- The Skyway opens later than the rest of the building and closes at 22:00. Very early in the morning the lower escalators may not be running yet, which means climbing. The rooftop terrace is open to the weather.
- Another way
- From Kansai Airport, the JR Haruka limited express runs straight into this station. From Tokyo or Shin-Osaka, Tokaido Shinkansen trains arrive on the southern side of the same building.
- After you get off
- Kyoto Station is the building. From the platforms follow signs for the Central Gate on the Karasuma, or north, side; the staircase begins above the central concourse on the fourth floor.