Wanting to travel but canft use jrail pass

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone could help me with my all dilemma.
My relatives will be coming over in july for a week and stay in tokyo but they wanted to take the chance since I also have days off from school and go together to other cities like Kyoto and Hiroshima for four days. We were thinking of the Jrail pass tickets for this voyage but the problem is since I have a long term student visa Ifm not eligible for it even though i also wanted to go but donft want us to be separated. Are there any options possible for us to go to those places and preferably not by a much costly or timely method of transportation if possible? Any suggestions would be welcomed, Ifm just sort of in a pinch here.

Thanks

Not having the correct immigration status to get a JR Pass should not exclude you from traveling with your family. They can get the pass but you'd have to buy the ticket at the regular price. You can all still sit together. If money is the issue, then one creative way of thinking would be to imagine all the money saved by getting the passes can be used to offset your predicament.

As mentioned, they can use the pass and you just pay regular fare. Actually, if that round trip is all you do, they'd still be a bit short of making the rail pass pay off anyway. A better way would be the japanican ticket.
https://www.japanican.com/en/tour/detail/PAS1J02031MKC/
Then you all can ride the Nozomi and get there about 30 minutes faster.

Another option is to fly down. Taking the train is more convenient, but if you fly on a low cost carrier you can get a dirt cheap airfare. You can take the Access Narita bus to Narita for just 1000 yen, and while most if not all the time savings of flying evaporates with the time getting to/from the airports, residents in Japan can take advantage of it as well.
http://www.jetstar.com/jp/en/home
http://www.flypeach.com/pc/en

There is one other option if you still want to take the train - the Platt Kodama Ticket. The Kodama trains take an extra hour since they stop at every single shinkansen station, but you can save a little money.
http://www.jrtours.co.jp/kodama/en/

The japanican ticket is not appicable in your case (being resident in Japan excludes you from that - I've checked directly with them). Including Hiroshima you should use the advance purchase (21-day) option so you can get fromTokyo to Hiroshima for under Y15,000. Even with a stop-off in Kyoto you can do the round trip for around Y35,000.

Otherwise, get a cheap LCC fare - you travel separately, but it's cheap.

If the long-distance travel is only four days, a 7-day pass would pay off because you're going as far as Hiroshima from Tokyo. Their "savings" can be used to help defray the cost of your ticket(s).

Perhaps I should have been clearer - the japanican ticket would be for your relatives, not you. It says distinctly on their website that residents are not eligible. But it still comes up way cheaper than the JR Pass for the Tokyo-Kansai round trip. That said if you choose to go all the way to Hiroshima, then the JR Pass makes more sense.

The Japan Bus Pass would be an option for you. http://willerexpress.com/st/3/en/pc/buspass/

Many of the longer routes (i.e., Tokyo to Kyoto) run overnight, so if you can sleep on a bus you just saved hotel costs, too.

go together to other cities like Kyoto and Hiroshima for four days.

If all of you want to go to Kyoto and Hiroshima from Tokyo and then back to Tokyo,
I would recommend the following itinerary.

Tokyo (Shinkansen Nozomi) Kyoto (Shinkansen Nozomi) Hiroshima (flight by ANA or JAL) Haneda (Tokyo). You might better take the opposite route, since the airfare is cheaper in earlier days of July.

The fare should be:

The JR base fare from Tokyo to Hiroshima 11660 yen (you can get off at any station along the route,
but can not backtrack.

Shinkansen reserved seat fare for Tokyo to Kyoto 5700 yen. Kyoto to Hiroshima 4930 yen.

Flight fare between Hiroshima and Tokyo around 10000 yen.

The total would be around 33000 yen which is somewhat more expensive
than the JR pass, but you can take faster Nozomi and faster flight.