Osaka: Which Namba Station?

When you arrive at Kansai International Airport (symbol: KIX) and try to reach your destinations via trains, sometimes you need to make connections at Namba Station (see diagram below).

Namba Station is one of the main connection points (the other two are Umeda and Tennoji Stations). But, Namba Station actually means 3 different stations on Google map:

JR-Namba Station
Nankai-Namba Station
Osaka-Namba Station

JR and Other Private Railways in Kansai Region

On Internet, Japan Rail Pass (JR Pass) is often recommended for traveling throughout Japan, which can be used on the railway, bus and ferry services that are provided by Japan Rail Group with few exceptions.

If you are traveling within Kansai region, however, most train services are provided by a myriad of private railway companies. See the caption of the above diagram for some of them.

Which Namba Station?

To search for train routes, Hyperdia becomes a handy tool. However, most likely you will find the following stations (name pair used by Google/Hyperdia):

JR-Namba Station / JR-NAMBA
Nankai-Namba Station / NAMBA(NANKAI)
Osaka-Namba Station / OSAKA-NAMBA

which are highlighted in yellow-colored rectangles of the above map (click to enlarge). Based on which railways you ride on, you might arrive at different Namba station. For connections, you may need to walk over to the nearby Namba station which is serviced by another railway company. For example, if you ride on trains serviced by Nankai Raiways, you could arrive at Nankai-Namba Station. To reach Nara, you may want to take trains serviced by Kintetsu Raiways. In that case, you need to take a 12-mins walk to Osaka-Namba Station (see map below).