As you might expect from a major railway hub for one of the country’s most visited cities, Kyoto Station is filled with souvenir stores. From sweets to miscellaneous goods, there’s such a wide selection on offer you’d think they have all the main products from Kyoto in stock, so when our reporter Udonko was planning a trip to the city, she did some online research beforehand to find out which souvenirs she should buy.

As she scrolled excitedly through all the recommendations online, a question suddenly popped into her head. Out of all the many souvenirs at Kyoto Station, which would be the cheapest one to buy?

Pivoting her search to find the answer to her question, she jotted down some ideas before making her way to Kyoto Station, located beneath the iconic Kyoto Tower.

Kyoto Station is directly connected to various complexes such as the Isetan department store building, Kyoto Theatre, and an underground shopping mall, but as this was way too much ground to cover, Udonko limited her search to the area inside Kyoto Station outside the Shinkansen ticket gates.

Since she was only looking for souvenirs, she decided to be strict with her search, passing on items that don’t show a connection to Kyoto, even if they might be cheaply priced.

Though she planned well before her visit, one thing she didn’t plan for were the crowds, because with this being fall foliage season, Kyoto Station was packed with tourists from all over the world.

Fighting her instinct to avoid the crowds and abort the mission, Udonko persevered, making her way to the Omiyage Kaido (“Souvenir Highway”).

Hunting for souvenirs was fun at first, but as she stopped by more and more souvenir hot spots to check the prices of their wares, she found herself becoming mentally and physically drained.

In the end, Udonko spent about two hours wandering around the area before finding what she believes to be the cheapest souvenir at Kyoto Station…

▼ …Miyako no Toryanse!