Here's my Kansai tidbit. I honestly don't like JR in Kansai. The loop line is generally inconvenient, the Hanwa line is always late (I had it once where some guy hit a train bridge with a truck so they canceled everything down to Kansai airport/Wakayama except the Haruka and regular (not express) trains), and JR is generally expensive.

If you take the loop line outside Osaka (IIRC the line is around Nishinomiya if you're going west and Ibaraki if you're going to Kyoto), the train fares get really expensive. It is cheaper to just take the loop line to Osaka, leave the station, then enter again, then go to Kyoto or Kobe (for example) than it would be to just take the train and transfer at Osaka station. It's true for any loop line station.

Here's what Yahoo says.
Tennoji - Kyoto　- 890 yen
Tennoji - Osaka - 190 yen
Osaka - Kyoto - 540 yen