Struggling with a JR Pass

Hi everyone,

I saw an earlier question in regards to whether to buy a JR pass or not. I've looked through the responses but still not sure what to do...
I wasn't very smart at planning and instead of making a trip for 14 days, our stay in Japan is actually 15 days (so we can't do the round trip Narita Express pass for the airport). We are travelling from Narita Airport to Tokyo on day 1 (staying in Harajuku) and then leaving to Kyoto on day 6 and staying there for one night. On day 7 we are travelling to Osaka and staying there for a few days and then travelling back to Tokyo on Day 11. Then finally, we are travelling back to the airport on Day 15.

I was going to purchase the 14 days JR pass as I've heard that it's a good deal to cover my travels between Tokyo-Kyoto-Osaka-Tokyo However, converting it back to yen, the JR pass is going to cost me around 45,000 Yen and I'm not sure that is that great of a deal, especially since I've been told by others that there aren't a lot of local trains within Tokyo that I can use the pass on. I've tried calculating each leg's cost on HyperDia and I think its less than 45,000 yen but I'm not sure I'm doing it right...

Could someone please shed some light on this?

Thank you!!!
Vicky

Thank you!!

You will lose money if you only do Tokyo-Osaka-Kyoto and back to Tokyo with a 14 days pass

The 7 days pass barely breaks even for the aforementioned route. You either have to add another long distance trip (e.g. Hiroshima) to make the 14 days pass worth it or just buy single tickets

Or you can just get a 7D JR pass. Activate your pass when you take the shinkansen to Kyoto, then go back to Tokyo on the last day of your JR Pass. Then spend the rest of your trip in Tokyo and its surrounding area.

Since you aren't doing a lot of travelling. I wouldn't get a JR pass.

Full price reserved seating shinkansen tickets are around 14,XXX yen each way. Tickets as cheap as 10,100 yen can be had through platt kodama.

A 7 day pass is 29,XXX yen. A 14 day pass is 46,XXX yen.

Just buy 1/2/3 day subway/railway passes for Tokyo and Kyoto/Osaka travels, and separate shinkansen tickets for you longer journies.

You can get discount shinkansen tickets for Tokyo-Kyoto on Japanican. Better deal than a 7-day JR Pass, which won't fully pay off with a round trip between Tokyo and the Kansai area.

You'll have to buy separate tickets for travel to/from Narita Airport (consider a bus instead - similar timing and cheaper). Get an IC card for your local travels.

Thank you for all your help!!!