Using an eSIM in Kyoto

What Kyoto is like on a phone

People come to Kyoto to walk temple grounds and old lanes, usually with three or four stops planned in opposite corners of the city. There is no dense subway web here the way Tokyo has one; buses are the bloodstream, which means the phone gets opened for live departure times far more often than elsewhere. Downtown the network is continuous. Climb the eastern slopes towards the temple gates and the rhythm starts to change.

When you land

Few people fly into Kyoto itself; most arrive from Kansai (KIX) on a limited express or an airport bus, and the rest step off a Shinkansen at Kyoto Station. Coming from the airport, switch the line on before the cabin door opens; coming by bullet train, it has already been live since the previous city. The express from the airport crosses suburbs where the line wobbles slightly, then steadies as the glass cavern of Kyoto Station swallows the train — and you will need it immediately, to find which of the many bus bays is yours.

Where coverage changes

The grid downtown around Kawaramachi is steady and the two subway lines are unremarkable in the best way. Things change on the eastern slopes: follow the stone paths up towards the hillside temples and the line softens in patches, screened by cedar and old stone walls. Arashiyama works in the bamboo and along the river but slows when the crowd thickens at midday. North, up the valley towards Ohara, the line simply thins with the distance from town.

What a day here costs in data

A temple-walking day costs roughly 1–1.5GB, between re-checking bus times at nearly every stop and reading up on each hall as you stand in front of it. Anyone photographing a rented kimono and sending the results to family all afternoon will use more, because high-resolution photos go out ten at a time. In the cherry and maple weeks the famous viewpoints are packed enough that uploads crawl; shoot now, send later from the guesthouse.

Districts travellers ask about

• Gion — Narrow wooden lanes, quiet at dusk; the line is fine but map positioning drifts where two-storey machiya crowd both sides, so navigate by the name of the nearest big crossing.
• Arashiyama — The bamboo grove and the river bridge are usable, but from late morning the crowd is thick enough to make image loading crawl; book a riverside lunch early, before the day-trippers arrive.
• Fushimi — The tunnel of vermilion gates climbs for kilometres, and the higher you go the more the line comes and goes; download the trail map and agree a turnaround point before you start up.
• Kawaramachi — The downtown restaurant blocks and covered arcades are the smoothest part of the city to be connected in — a sensible place to settle bookings or online check-ins before heading for the hillier districts.

Day trips out of the city

• Uji — Under half an hour by train with a clean line the whole way; the riverbank and the tea houses are normal, though a few of the old timber halls damp the signal a little with sheer mass of wood.
• Ohara — A bus ride up the northern valley with real gaps along the middle stretch; write the return departure times into the phone's notes before you set off, not after you arrive.
• Lake Biwa at Otsu — A few stations through the hills puts you on the lake shore, where the town side is well served; board a cruise and the line weakens as the distance from the bank grows.