JR 7 day or 14 day pass?

hi,

i've been to japan twice before (08/09) but this is my first time buying a JR pass. i'm a bit torn between buying a 7 day or 14 day - can i get some thoughts? i realise i'm spending a huge amount of time in tokyo, but i have lots of friends to catch up with!

my current itinerary is this and i was considering getting a 14 day pass and activating on the day i arrive.

tues oct 7 - tokyo (arrive 9am)
wed oct 8 - tokyo
thurs oct 9 - tokyo
fri oct 10 - tokyo
sat oct 11 - tokyo
sun oct 12 - kyoto
mon oct 13 - kyoto
tues oct 14 - kyoto
wed oct 15 - hiroshima
thurs oct 16 - hiroshima (inc miyajima)
fri oct 17 - osaka
sat oct 18 - nara
sun oct 19 - osaka
mon oct 20 - tokyo
tues oct 21 - tokyo
wed oct 22 - tokyo
thurs oct 23 - nakone
fri oct 24 - kamakura
sat oct 25 - tokyo
sun oct 26 - tokyo
mon oct 27 - tokyo
tues oct 28 - tokyo
wed oct 29 - tokyo
thurs oct 30 - tokyo (leave 11am)

however, would it be worth just visiting nara for half a day (making osaka/nara 2 days total) and just getting a 7 day pass? for the majority of my time in tokyo i'll be staying with a friend who lives on the keio sagamihara line which i obviously won't be able to use the JR pass for.

any ideas would be appreciated!

For that itinerary, a 7 day would be best if you can get back to Tokyo in that 7 day period.

Without knowing what your plans are in Hiroshima, I'd be inclined to cut that part down to one night and two (partial) days. You can get to Hiroshima fairly early, do some sightseeing, and still get to Miyajima by check-in time. The next day you have plenty of time to enjoy the island in the morning, stop in Hiroshima for more sightseeing if you want, and still get to Osaka at a reasonable time.

Consider staying two (or maybe three) nights in Osaka with a day trip to Nara. Changing hotels is a nuisance and Nara isn't particularly known for its night life anyway. I'd be inclined to cut back on Osaka anyway, given how much time you're spending in Tokyo. But it does have some unique things to do. (I am not one of those people who sees little value in Osaka. I think it's a great city in itself.)

It doesn't sound to me like you would have to make any major compromises to make a 7-day pass work. For most people, it's a tougher call as they can't possibly fit their major trips into a 7-day window without really messing up their itinerary.

Oh, I'm sorry. I somehow got it into my head that you were spending the night on Miyajima. Actually, if you can afford it, that is a good thing to do. But I think Hiroshima still works as a 1-night stay if you get there fairly early. Miyajima can be done in a 4- to 5-hour chunk of time (including transit) that you can fit in either the day you arrive in Hiroshima or the morning you leave.

thanks for the tips, it seems like if i squash it all into the 7 days its going to be too rushed which i don't really want to do on my holiday, but then a 14 day pass for 8-9 days out of tokyo seems excessive?! ugh, i don't know what to do!

The sections when it would be valuable to have a JR Pass would be the days when you do Tokyo - Kyoto, Kyoto - Hiroshima - Osaka - Tokyo. Also I assume you mean Hakone on Oct. 23? JR pass is useful to get from Tokyo to Odawara as well, though not all the way till Hakone. So if you are getting a 14-day pass, you should activate it on the day you are traveling from Tokyo to Kyoto, so that possibly you can cover the days when you go to Hakone as well.

Or, even if you got yourself a 7-day pass and used it to cover Tokyo - Kyoto - Hiroshima - Osaka, that would make sense as well.

You don't "have to" buy any pass either :)

sorry, yes i meant nakone - hakone was a typo haha. if i buy a 14 day pass you think it will be better to activate on the 13th as opposed to the 7th (day i arrive)?

As noted by AK, you could get a 7-day pass that covers you until you get to Osaka, and then you could just buy a single ticket back to Tokyo. If you really aren't going to use JR much at all when you are in Tokyo, then I suppose that is the least-cost option.

If it were me, I would probably get a 14-day pass and then make sure I got my money's worth by adding one or more trips (probably day trips out of Tokyo), but if you are going to be spending all of your time in Tokyo with your friend, that might not be good. (Your rail travel might be "free," but your friend couldn't come along without buying a ticket.)

As I'm sure you know, you have to buy the rail pass exchange order (voucher) before you get to Japan. However, you don't have to specify the validity period. If you get a 14-day pass, you could figure out after you get there when you want to activate the pass. I actually did this on my last trip, based on weather and how I was feeling. (I had various scenarios in mind and then picked one.)