Originally Posted by railroadtycoon
The Kyoto bus pass is a great value as it costs 500yen.
The busfare is fixed within Kyoto at 220Y per ride.
All one needs is to make 3 bus rides in a day for the pass to pay itself off, which is easy to do in Kyoto.
The kyoto bus pass never states (at least in anything I have, that you get discounts off temples) the pass is available to everybody regardless of nationality.
I'm afraid you must be mistaking it with some other pass.
There are a lot of excellent passes out there each one geared differently depending on where one wants to travel, in the case I noted on the other page, there is no one pass that would fit based on his schedule.
I've really gone offtopic here. As mentioned in an earlier post, The Japan forum is the most appropriate forum.
Those staying at the Westin Kyoto should get a city bus pass and combined with a few subway rides, its a great value if you plan on visiting that facinating city.
I agree the bus pass pays for itself if you ride 3 times or more. Which is easy to do, particularly if you stay in Kyoto.
There is in fact a bus pass where they say you get a discount on temples admission at the ticket office, pretty sure it was 1000 yen vs the 500 yen pass we bought. However, there are definite signs at the temples ticket window that read, "We do not give discounts." The golden temple for sure had that sign in the window and I don't remember if the rock garden had it too.
It might be a new thing, I was there a little over a week ago.