12 days - JR Pass and What Else

Hello - my family of 4 arrives at Haneda in the morning of 8/22. We have van service to our hotel in Tokyo. We are there 5 days then leave for Kyoto and will be in Kyoto 4 days. We then go to Kamakura for 2 days and leave Haneda close to midnight on 9/2. We plan on doing sightseeing in and outside of both Tokyo and Kyoto. My question is whether to get the 7 day JR pass and have it start on the day we leave Tokyo for Kyoto which would cover us until we leave Japan, or if we should buy the 14 day pass even if we are only in Japan for 12 days. Will it work much in and around Tokyo and Kyoto for local/close-by travel? Thanks for your help!

My daughter and I spent 19 days in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka in February and I researched and researched and asked questions but didn't really get an answer on the JR pass and am so glad I chose not to go with it. We saved hundreds of dollars by not getting the pass. It's good if you are travelling to many cities in a 7 day period but if only in 2 cities, not worth it. Including taxis, the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto and Kyoto to Osaka and our shuttle from Narita airport to Shinjuku and from Osaka to Kansai airport as well as all the local trains, the two of us combined spent about 45,000 yen on travel during the entire time. We did walk a lot too.

A 14-day JR Pass is definitely not an option.

You can have a good use of JR Pass inside Tokyo but it is quite useless in Kyoto.

However, it still seems that 7-day JR Pass is the best option since the round trip Shinkansen ticket price between Tokyo and Kyoto is only few thousands less than the price of a 7-day JR Pass. And you will still use it for Kamakura trip, so it will be paid off, though it won't save you much.

If you pay for full price shinkansen tickets. A 7 day pass will only just pay itself off. Depending on how much you use other JR trains on your non shinkansen days.

A 7 day pass is 29,460 yen. Both your Tokyo to Kyoto and Kyoto to Shin-Yokohama/Shinagawa shinkansen trips will equal about 28,000 yen.

If you want to save money, you can get Platt Kodama tickets for just over 10,000 yen each direction. The trains will take an extra 1.5 hours compared to the faster options.

http://www.jrtours.co.jp/kodama/en/

At 10,100 yen each per direction. That is much cheaper than 29,460 yen. So 20,200 per person return and then use an IC card or daily passes for the rest of your travels.

It really depends on how much inconvenience you are willing to accept in exchange for lower prices. Especially if you consider other options besides the Shinkansen, such as overnight trains or buses, or flights (especially low-cost ones).

For example personally I would probably go with low-cost flights, because I view as negligible the inconvenience caused by transportation to/from airports and flight-related procedures. Others here disagree.

On the other hand, I dislike overnight buses and only consider them if scheduling makes them necessary. (I took an overnight bus in Japan only once: I had a flight arriving at Narita in the evening, needed to be in Sendai in the early morning, and really did not want to pay a hotel room plus Shinkansen.)

Another possible problem with overnight buses and/or trains is "IF" you are only going as far as Kansai area. You'll end up there somewhere between midnight and 4am depending on the service. Not good if you are a tourist and still have to find a way to your accommodation location.

For me overnight buses and/or trains only work if the travel time is more than 12 hours. As arriving somewhere in the dark and needing a shower isn't an ideal situation. Okay for locals with a home to go to. But arriving between 8am and noon does work for tourists.

I agree with Firas on the buses. I also don't like overnight buses for the above reasons.

Thank you all for your help and guidance. It's much appreciated. I will probably go with the 7 day pass and fill in Kyoto with the Kansai Thru Pass if that makes sense for a few days.

Buying two overpriced passes and overlapping them is cost prohibitive.

The Kansai Thru Pass is 4000 yen for 2 days and 5200 for 3 days. 1733-2000 per day.

Anywhere in Osaka central area to Arashiyama/Fishimi Inari/Kiyomizadera each is 800-900 yen return. Nara will cost about 1200-1300 return.

Unless you plan on going to Koya-san and/or Himeji, then the through pass wont even come close to paying itself off.

Sorry - forgot to add that if you have a JR pass that will cover you to Himeji anyway. So Kansai thru pass really wont pay itself off per day of usage.

Hakata, thank you. You have been so very helpful!