Travel for Life: Osaka: Navigating the Many Namba Stations

Saturday, May 28, 2016

Osaka: Navigating the Many Namba Stations


This is a passageway leading to Nankai-Namba Station. Be aware that underground passages in Japan can be quite complex for visitors.

When you arrive at Kansai International Airport (symbol: KIX) and try to reach your destinations via trains, sometimes you need to make connections at Namba Station (see Fig. 2).

Namba Station is one of the main connection points (the other two are Umeda and Tennoji Stations). But, Namba Station actually means 4 different stations on Google map (see Fig. 3&4) :

Namba Station (Subway): This station provides access to the Osaka Metro lines: Midosuji (see Fig. 4), Sennichimae, and Yotsubashi. These lines can take you to popular destinations like Osaka Station, Koreatown, Honmachi, and Nippombashi.
JR-Namba Station: This smaller station has only four tracks and two platforms. It's located within the Osaka City Air Terminal (OCAT) building, and the entrance can be easy to miss. Thankfully, it's connected to the other stations by an underground pathway.
Nankai-Namba Station: This station is operated by Nankai Railways and offers connections to Wakayama Prefecture and Kansai Airport (KIX).
Osaka-Namba Station (or Kintetsu Namba Station): This station serves both Kintetsu Railways and Hanshin Railways, providing access to Nara, Nagoya, Kyoto, and Kobe.

As you can see, the reason for the multiple stations with similar names is that different train companies serve the same district (Namba) with their own stations. This can be confusing for visitors, so it's important to pay attention to the additional information provided, such as the train line name or the operating company, when navigating through Namba Station.

Figure 2. Osakan trains operate on a network of private rail companies

JR and Other Private Railways in Kansai Region

On Internet, Japan Rail Pass (JR Pass) is often recommended for traveling throughout Japan, which can be used on the railway, bus and ferry services that are provided by Japan Rail Group with few exceptions.

If you are traveling within Kansai region, however, most train services are provided by a myriad of private railway companies. See the caption of the Figure 2 for some of them.

Figure 3. Four different Namba Stations (top Namba Station is subway station & bottom Namba Station is Nankai-Namba Station)

Figure 4. Four different Namba Stations (highlighted in green; Osaka Metro Route Map)

Which Namba Station?

To search for train routes, Jorudan becomes a handy tool. However, most likely you will find the following stations (name pair used by Google/Jorudan):

JR-Namba Station / JR-Namba
Nankai-Namba Station / Nankai-Namba
Osaka-Namba Station / Osaka-Namba
Namba Station / Namba

which are highlighted in yellow-colored rectangles of the above map (click to enlarge). Based on which railways you ride on, you might arrive at different Namba station. For connections, you may need to walk over to the nearby Namba station which is serviced by another railway company. For example, if you ride on trains serviced by Nankai Railways, you could arrive at Nankai-Namba Station. To reach Nara, you may want to take trains serviced by Kintetsu Railways. In that case, you need to take a 12-mins walk to Osaka-Namba Station (see map below).