Originally Posted by
mosburger
In any case, ti would be better to to a day trip to either Kyoto or Nara and head back to Osaka for the night. I have done frenzied Kyoto - KIX morning treks too many times and it is really not pleasant watch the minutes ticking away while the Haruka is diverted to secondary tracks in rush hour traffic.
I've seen you mention your negative experiences with the Haruka before and it was in my mind when I looked at train times:
The Nara itinerary that I outlined doesn't use the Haruka. If OP changes at Shin Imamiya he gets on the Rapit train to KIX.
The Kyoto plan that I outlined uses a Haruka which is scheduled to reach the airport 2.5 hours before the OP's flight. There would need to be a pretty severe delay for there to be a problem.
Is it really a common occurrence for the Haruka to be significantly delayed?
I asked some friends who live in the area if the Haruka was unreliable during rush hour - they hadn't heard of this as a problem. And I don't see complaints about this on blogs or discussion boards. (I'd expect a quick search to turn up some discussion board rants if it were a common problem).
Maybe someone currently living in Kansai can comment.