Hello Kitty Shopping Adventure Episode 9: Kyoto

During my Silver Week trip to Kobe, I managed to squeeze in a day trip to Kyoto. I know, most foreigners will spend a minimum of one night at this popular tourist destination. Not me, though, and for two reasons: I’ve been there before, and I’ve always been more interested in places in Japan that have a East-meets-West appeal than the very traditional ones like Kyoto.

From Sannomiya station in Kobe it takes only one hour to get to Kyoto by rail, on the JR Kyoto Line. That line could also get you to Shin Osaka and Osaka, and some of the rapid trips continue to Himeji on the JR Kobe Line.

Luck was on my side that day Kitty-wise because before my train made its final stop at Kyoto Station, there was a Hello Kitty Sakura train that was about to leave for Hakata. I managed to snap a few shots of the cute train before it left its platform.

I then quickly looked for the Shinkansen gates because that’s usually where the souvenir shops are. At this point in my nearly year-long Gotochi Kitty shopping adventure, I’ve already come to learn that the first places to search are shops located near the entry points to the city/town - airports and major train stations. I’ve also come to learn that in some cases (for example, in Hiroshima), the souvenir shops with the most amount and variety of choices are located inside the Shinkansen gates.

As it turned out, while there were many Gotochi Kitty items inside the Kyoto Station Shinkansen gates, there were more at souvenir shops outside. So, that was where I did most of my shopping. The 150 yen I spent for entry into the gates did not entirely go to waste, though. Inside the gates I was able to buy a Kyoto-limited Starbucks snow globe which I wasn’t able to find at the Starbucks branch outside the train gates.

After about three hours of going around the souvenir shops, I just bought some really nice bento and then I was on the train back to Kobe. Yes, I’m that foreigner who visited Kyoto just to shop for Gotochi Kitty items, hehe. I thought of visiting Nara, but I’ve been there as well, so I headed back to Kobe just so I can explore it some more.

Hi City-Cost Readers! If you have friends from outside of Japan who are interested in exclusive Hello Kitty Japan items, please invite them to check out TokuDeals at https://www.tokudeals.com/ and https://linkpop.com/tokudeals. They are also on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.