Kansai in Japanese kanji is 関西. It literally means the west border. Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe are some of the major cities in the Kansai region. (to learn more about Kansai read the wikipedia article here.)
Kanto in Japanese kanji is 関東. It means the east border. Some of the major Kanto cities are Tokyo, Yokohama, Chiba and so on. (Learn your geography on wikipedia.)

When we did our June 2008 trip to Kyoto, Osaka and Tokyo, we decided to take the Shinkansen from Osaka to Tokyo. After a quick check …