Getting there
JR Special Rapid trains connect Osaka Station directly to Kyoto Station in well under an hour, with no transfer required — making Kyoto one of the easiest and most frequent day trips out of the city. Shin-Osaka also has shinkansen service to Kyoto for an even faster, pricier hop.
Picking a focus, not a checklist
Kyoto has an outsized number of major sights for its size, and trying to cover Fushimi Inari, Kinkaku-ji, Arashiyama and Gion in a single day usually means rushing all of them. Most repeat visitors recommend picking one or two areas — say, eastern Higashiyama's temple streets, or the Arashiyama bamboo grove and riverside — and going deep rather than wide.
Fushimi Inari, early
If the thousands of vermillion torii gates at Fushimi Inari Taisha are on your list, going as early as possible in the morning makes a large difference — it's one of the few major Kyoto sights that's free, open 24 hours, and dramatically less crowded before mid-morning.
Kyoto's local buses get very congested with tourist traffic in peak season. Where possible, using Kyoto's own subway and rail lines between districts is usually faster than the bus network.