On our second day in Osaka, we took a bus tour to Nara Park and Todai-ji, Arashiyama, and Kiyomizu-dera, then had gyukatsu back in Osaka. We booked U Tour Bus through Klook and paid KRW 93,800 for two people.
The bus handled the transfers between areas, with free time to explore each stop. Here are the route we visited, our own photos, and the admission and food expenses we recorded separately from the tour booking.
We paid for the tour ourselves and received no advertising fee from the tour operator. Tripop may receive a commission from bookings through the separately labeled KKday affiliate links below.
An early start in Dotonbori
We returned to Dotonbori after having takoyaki there the previous evening. At around 7:30 a.m., the light across the canal looked different from the illuminated streets of the night before. The trip left us with both morning and evening photographs of the same area.
This was the schedule supplied with our booking. Anyone booking another date should check their own meeting point and meeting time.
| Booking schedule | Stop | Free time |
|---|---|---|
| 07:40 | Departure from Osaka | Not applicable |
| 09:00–10:40 | Nara Park and Todai-ji | 1 hour 40 minutes |
| 12:00–14:40 | Arashiyama | 2 hours 40 minutes |
| 15:20–17:00 | Kiyomizu-dera | 1 hour 40 minutes |
| 18:00 | Planned return to Osaka | Not applicable |
We used the Korean-language U Tour Bus Nara and Kyoto day tour on Klook. Our KRW 93,800 payment was for two people at the time; it is not a current price guarantee. The linked booking page is in Korean, and this was a Korean-language guide product.
Deer and Todai-ji in Nara
Nara Park was our favorite stop of the day. Seeing the deer up close was the highlight.
Nara was our first stop. We got close to the deer before walking to Todai-ji. Our ledger has a total of ¥400 for deer food, and the photographs show how close the deer came. We also photographed deer again after visiting the temple.
The large roof and open grounds fitted together in a front-facing photograph of the hall. This part of the morning combined the park's outdoor setting with a temple visit. Our Todai-ji admission entry was ¥1,600.
The admission and deer-food entries were separate from the bus-tour payment. Those on-site costs matter when estimating the day, rather than treating the tour booking as an all-inclusive total.
Lunch, river views and bamboo in Arashiyama
We reached Arashiyama around midday, walked by the river and visited the bamboo grove. The booking allocated 2 hours 40 minutes here, the longest free-time block of the three stops, with lunch fitting into that time.
Our lunch entry was ¥5,250: an Ume eel rice bowl at ¥1,900, a Matsu eel rice bowl at ¥2,900 and a cola at ¥450. This was the amount we actually recorded for lunch for two.
The riverside photograph takes in a broad view of water and hills. The bamboo photograph looks upward instead, with tall stems and patches of sky between the leaves. They show two different settings within the same stop.
Kiyomizu-dera and the walk downhill
Kiyomizu-dera was the final sightseeing stop. After passing the entrance, we photographed the wooden stage and surrounding trees. The view differed from the front-on image of Todai-ji earlier in the day: here, the building and hillside appeared together.
Our Kiyomizu-dera admission entry was ¥1,000. The two temple admission entries together came to ¥2,600.
After the temple, we walked through the nearby streets. Shops lined the downhill route and people were passing in both directions. We have kept this street photograph alongside the temple view to show the walk as well as the building.
Gyukatsu back in Osaka
Dinner was at a restaurant with a 京都 勝牛 sign. The set included sliced beef, shredded cabbage, rice, soup, sauces and a small tabletop grill. The gyukatsu tasted very good. The dinner entry was ¥7,282, the largest meal entry that day.
This tour put three sightseeing areas into one day. When comparing it with other options, consider whether you want to visit all three or spend more time in a single area; the free-time blocks have to work around the bus transfers.
Recorded day-two costs: KRW 253,426 including the tour
| On-site entry | Amount |
|---|---|
| Eel rice bowls and cola | ¥5,250 |
| Todai-ji | ¥1,600 |
| Kiyomizu-dera | ¥1,000 |
| Deer food | ¥400 |
| Coffee | ¥550 |
| Gong Cha | ¥1,020 |
| Gyukatsu | ¥7,282 |
| Convenience-store snacks | ¥1,565 |
| On-site total | ¥18,667 |
The app's stored KRW equivalents total KRW 159,626. Adding the KRW 93,800 tour booking gives KRW 253,426. We have not allocated flight or hotel costs to this day.
These are our October 3, 2026 photographs and recorded expenses. The next day was dedicated to USJ.
Other days from this trip
What we verified
Tripop prepared this account on October 6, 2026 from the traveler’s photographs, payment records and first-hand account. Editorial and correction policy