I'm trying to get my head around taking the train from the cruise port in Osaka at Tempozan Pier, to Kyoto Station. In researching it, there are times where it doesn't seem too difficult to navigate, but I will have a lot of people counting on me to get it right and I've not visited Japan before, so there are times when it seems overwhelming and confusing.
It will be a Saturday, and we port at 7:00am, and need to meet a tour at Kyoto Station at 9:00am.
In looking at hyperdia.com there appear to be several options running from around 840 yen to 3200 yen, all taking about an hour - what is the difference in the cost? Is there a reason why we wouldn't take the 840 yen option?
Is the simplest option to buy a Suica card and load it with a certain amount, and use it on all of the trains? If so, I'm thinking we could use this reloadable Suica card for our days in Tokyo at the end of the cruise also.
What would be a reasonable starting amount to load the card with to cover approximately 2 days of travel? If the Suica card is not the simplest way, what is the best way to buy tickets from Osaka to Kyoto, and for the day around Kyoto?
Is it true that the ticket machines only accept cash yen, rather than credit cards?
Any help or suggestions are appreciated.