奈良線 (Nara Line) · Line introduction

Nara Line mascot train

Overview

The Nara Line (D) is JR West's route between the two old capitals — 21 stations and 41.7 km from Kyoto to Nara. The railway underneath is smaller than that and points the other way: the line legally called 奈良線 is only Kizu to Kyoto, 19 stations and 34.7 km, with Kizu as its official origin, so a Kyoto-to-Nara train is formally running down the line. The last stretch past Kizu belongs to the Kansai Main Line. Nobody rides it that way, though, and JR West doesn't sign it that way either: the D numbers run unbroken to Nara at D21, and there is no D22. The whole Kyoto–Nara route was in fact built as one railway by the Nara Railway between 1895 and 1896; a government reorganisation cut it in two in 1909, and the paperwork has never caught up.

Along the route

The first half is the tourist front of the Kansai network. Tofukuji, for the maples, shares its platforms with the Keihan Main Line; Inari puts you directly opposite the torii gates of Fushimi Inari, and is older than the line it sits on — it opened in 1879 on the original Tokaido Main Line, and its brick lamp house is the oldest surviving one from the JNR era. Then JR-Fujinomori, Momoyama, and Rokujizo, where the Tozai subway and the Keihan Uji Line both surface. Uji is the stop for the Byodoin. After JR-Ogura the temples give out and the line crosses the flat Yamashiro plain — Shinden, Joyo, Nagaike, Yamashiro-aodani, which began in 1926 as a temporary halt for the Aodani plum grove — before Kizu, Narayama, and Nara. Double-tracking was finally finished in February 2023, and Kyoto to Nara has been a flat 44 minutes ever since, in both directions.

Why play it

Four stations here share a name with a Keihan station a few hundred metres away, and one of them reads differently on each railway: JR's 木幡 is Kohata, Keihan's 木幡 on the Uji Line is Kowata. 平城山 is the other trap — 平城 is the Heijo of Heijo-kyo, but the station is Narayama. Then 新田 is Shinden and not Nitta, 棚倉 is Tanakura and not Tanagura, and 木津 is きづ with a づ even though the sign reads Kizu. For length the line swings hard both ways: うじ and なら are two kana each, among the shortest in the game, while JR藤森 is typed じぇいあーるふじのもり, eleven kana for three characters on the sign.

Line data

Everything below is derived from the station data the game runs on, so it always matches what you actually type on the 奈良線 — all 21 stops of it.

Operator: JR West
Line symbol: D
Stations: 21
Shape: Terminal to terminal
Termini: 京都 — 奈良

How much typing is this?

Typing every station name on this line takes 170 keystrokes, an average of 8.1 per station. The longest name is JR藤森 (jr-fujinomori) at 17 keystrokes; the shortest is 宇治 (uji) at 3. Those counts come from running each name's kana through the game's own romaji engine, so they are what your fingers actually do — not the length of the printed spelling.

Along the way: 0 names contain a small っ, which doubles the next consonant; 2 contain a small ゃ, ゅ or ょ, where the engine accepts both the Hepburn and Kunrei spellings (sha or sya, shu or syu); and 1 end in ん, whose trailing n folds into whatever comes next rather than standing alone.

Where you can change trains

3 of the 21 stations on this line connect to another line in the game. Follow any symbol to that line's guide.

Every station on the line

All 21 stations in order, with the official station number, the name in kanji, the kana the typing is derived from, and its Hepburn romaji.

#	No.	Station	Kana	Romaji
1	D01	京都	きょうと	kyoto
2	D02	東福寺	とうふくじ	tofukuji
3	D03	稲荷	いなり	inari
4	D04	JR藤森	じぇいあーるふじのもり	jr-fujinomori
5	D05	桃山	ももやま	momoyama
6	D06	六地蔵	ろくじぞう	rokujizo
7	D07	木幡	こはた	kohata
8	D08	黄檗	おうばく	obaku
9	D09	宇治	うじ	uji
10	D10	JR小倉	じぇいあーるおぐら	jr-ogura
11	D11	新田	しんでん	shinden
12	D12	城陽	じょうよう	joyo
13	D13	長池	ながいけ	nagaike
14	D14	山城青谷	やましろあおだに	yamashiro-aodani
15	D15	山城多賀	やましろたが	yamashiro-taga
16	D16	玉水	たまみず	tamamizu
17	D17	棚倉	たなくら	tanakura
18	D18	上狛	かみこま	kamikoma
19	D19	木津	きづ	kizu
20	D20	平城山	ならやま	narayama
21	D21	奈良	なら	nara