Free WiFi Hotspots in Kyoto

Around Kyoto station, a lot of free WiFi hotspots are available such as not only stations itself (Shinkansen, Kintetsu Railway) but also tourist informations, bus ticket center, department stores, large electoronics stores, shopping districts, convenience stores and even some vending machines at station platform.

But, other than Kyoto station, actually, not all of those facilities and stores have free Wi-Fi services, so please be careful.

I’ll show you more details about the tips at the following section.

In Kyoto, speaking of convenience stores are Seven-eleven, Family Mart and Lawson.

These Convenience stores are best hotspots for tourists, because almost all stores have free WiFi services and easy to find the location.

And, on the way to the stores, use public free WiFi services, if you come across the hotspots.

In Kyoto, two kinds of public free WiFi services are available.

They are “KYOTO Wi-Fi” and “Japan Free Wi-Fi KYOTO“.

Above all, “KYOTO Wi-Fi” service covers facilities and stores relatively easy to find for tourists.

So, Let’s check the ilustration below.

Among those hotspots, Mcdonald’s is also easy to find for tourists.
(please note that NOT all of vending machines are hotspots)

Moreover, such public free WiFi are provided by not only the facilities and stores as I listed above but also many private shops over the Kyoto city.

But, the problem is that it is not easy to find hotspots such small private shops for tourists.
In that case, check SSIDs (network names) of the public WiFi while heading for convenience stores.

If you see bus stops or small shops on the way, check if those public WiFi SSIDs are available or not !

It is very easy to sign up for these bublic WiFi services. All you need is your e-mail address. Most of the cases, social media acounts (Facebook, Twitter and Google) are also accepted for registration.

(If you want to know how to sign up for Public Free WiFi in detail, please refer this page.)

If you do not unfortunately come across public WiFi hotspots, use free WiFi at convenience stores.

Seven-eleven in Kyoto provides not only their own free WiFi service (SSID, network name : 7spot) but also one of public WiFi service (SSID : KYOTO Wi-Fi).
So, select “KYOTO WiFi” and register.
It is much easier to sign up, and you will be also able to use at other hotspots. (How to sign up refers to this page)

Family Mart and Lawson provide their original free WiFi services only.

The followings are how to sign up for each store.

 « LAWSON » 

It is very easy to sign up for Lawson free WiFi. All you need is registration of your E-mail address and agreement to the terms of service and security level.

At first, select the SSID (network name) below, LAWSON_Free_Wi-Fi.
Next, open a browser, enter your e-mail address and agree several things. That’s all !

 « Family Mart » 

Next, in the case of Family Mart.

At frist, select the SSID (Famima_Wi-Fi), open browser and click the button below in WiFi portal (it may be in Japanese.)

After that, Checking an agreement of several things and entering your e-mail address, any password and gender are needed to temporarily sign up.

Then, a registration e-mail will be sent to the registered address. So, click the URL in the e-mail to complete main registration.

In Kyoto, even if you only register for public free Wi-Fi services, a lot of hotspots are covered.
So, if APP work well, it may be useful, but I think that it is not compulsory.

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As you already know, a lot of Free WiFi services are available in Kyoto, such as stores, restaurants, shopping districts and some stations.

Especially, convenience stores and public WiFi hotspots are easy to sign up and useful.

But, please be careful that those free Wifi services are not encrypted.
So, please refrain from entering sensitive information such as IDs, passwords and credit card unmber.

Furthermore, the problem for tourists is that those free WiFi services are not available on the bus (train), and famous temples & shrines.

So, for moving smoothly and traveling comfortably aroud Kyoto, I recommend that you should take pocket WiFi router with you!