Well, with a few friends and family planning to visit us later this year. I thought I might take this opportunity to BLOG about the “Haruka” which is the train in this photo. This is the fastest (although not the cheapest) way to get from Kansai International Airport (KIX) to Kyoto. Taking just 75minutes to make the trip. It's also a very comfortable train to travel on with spacious seating and large baggage stowage areas. If you don't have much baggage you could try the Airport Rapid Service which is half the cost, but it's a regular commuter train (extremely crowed at peak times) and you'll have to switch to a Special Rapid Service at Osaka. If you have a Japan Rail Pass you can use it on the Haruka, so don't bother with any of the cheaper methods of transportation.
As you can see this part of the line is four tracked, so the express trains use the outside tracks and the slower trains use the inner tracks. However line the “Haruka” uses on the section between Shin-Osaka and the Airport is only 2 tracked so sometimes you get stuck behind slower trains, but this is factored into the time table and a number of the stations are 4 tracked so you just overtake the slower trains when they are at a station. Japan has the most efficient rail system in the world!
To get to Nagaokakyo from Kyoto station, just catch a local train heading towards Osaka. Nagaokakyo is 12minutes from Kyoto by train.