Rail pass decision

Hello All

I'm planning my trip to Japan for end of December this year (17dec-5jan). I was wondering if anyone can give me some advice on which JR pass to buy or if I shouldn't buy anything at all and maybe just wing it! Last time we were in Japan we got the 7 day JR pass and it was great, but our trip was a bit more straightforward than this. So here's what we're planning:
18dec: arrival at Narita, travel to Hakone
20dec: travel to Nagoya
21dec: travel to Matsumoto
22dec: travel to Takayama
23dec: travel to Shirakawa go, return to Takayama
24dec: travel to Kanazawa
25dec: travel to Nagano
26dec: travel to Jigokudani Yaenkoen, return to Nagano
27dec: travel to Kusatsu
29dec: travel to Tokyo
5 Jan: travel to Narita, return home

Any advice on how to manage travel would be much appreciated!

Rethink you itinerary.

a- you are zigzagging across a map, not going in one big circle. Look at a map.

b- you are not allowing yourself enough time at each location. with 2-4 hours of travel time per day, you struggle to do much with only a day at each location.

As for rail pass. No rail pass is suitable as seven day pass not long enough, and fourteen day pass more expensive than individual tickets.

Unless you have a need to be in specific towns/cities on specific dates, I'd make two changes.

Instead of Nagoya -> Matsumoto -> Takayama, I'd change that to Nagoya -> Takayama and then go to Matsumoto after you are finished in the Nagano area with the Monkey Park and the Kusatsu Hot Springs, and then on to Tokyo after Matsumoto.


The other change I would make is the Takayama -> Shirakawa-Go -> Takayama -> Kanazawa part.

Take the bus from Takayama to Shirakawa-Go and then rather than go back to Takayama for the night, take the bus from Shirakawa-Go to Kanazawa.

This cuts out the zig-zagging hakata14 was referring to.

I thought I was going in a big circle rather than zigzagging :p but yeah you're definitely right, some tweaks might be necessary. I was set on seeing Matsumoto prior to Takayama - don't ask me why hahah. It all worked time wise, but I've spent all morning looking at costs and I couldn't get it to something reasonable

I was thinking that in most of these places we'd take the bus rather than the train, especially the Takayama --> Kanazawa route and for the monkey park.. So the pass would be wasted on a few days.

Any of you have experience with the seishun 18 kippu? It's the holiday period so they should be on sale when we get there, do they only sell a specific amount of them?

I just wanted to say thank you very much for the suggestions! I think I got the schedule to work. Not buying a pass but the trip comes cheaper than the 2 week pass (not counting the tube in tokyo). I'll double check tomorrow, as I've spent 7 continuous hours doing research and there's a possibility I'm confused lol

The addition to Matsumoto between Nagoya and Takayama was the odd piece when I saw the schedule. Takayama-Kanazawa/Nagano is a pretty conventional route. I also bumped up Kusatsu as the link from Nagano to Matsumoto is pretty easy (around an hour), but that could possibly use some refinement. How about considering:

18dec: arrival at Narita, travel to Hakone
20dec: travel to Nagoya
21dec: travel to Takayama
22dec: travel to Shirakawa go (day or 1/2 day trip), return to Takayama
23dec: travel to Kanazawa
24dec: travel to Kusatsu
25dec: travel to Nagano
26dec: travel to Jigokudani Yaenkoen (Monkey Park day trip), return to Nagano
27dec: travel to Matsumoto
29dec: travel to Tokyo
5 Jan: travel to Narita, return home

As for a rail pass, the longer distance travel does not all fit into a 7-day period, you get close from 20th to 26th, and if Jogokudani was included on your Kusatsu/Nagano piece, you could get to Matsumoto a day earlier, and then the trip back to Tokyo would be the main trip not covered.
With checking the detailed pricing from you arrival on the 18th through to 29th (your return to Tokyo), I don't think the 14 day pass is viable.

Thank you for the response Japancustomtours!

What I decided last night was that we will keep Matsumoto before Takayama, but instead get Nagoya out of the equation (where we would only be for the evening anyway) and travel direct to Matsumoto from Hakone. Therefore it has become like this:

18dec: arrival at Narita, travel to Hakone
20dec: travel to Matsumoto via local trains & limited express (same time as shinkansen)
21dec: travel to Takayama with Niho bus
23dec: travel to Shirakawa go, continue to Kanazawa with Niho bus
25dec: travel to Nagano with shinkansen
26dec: travel to Jigokudani Yaenkoen, return to Nagano with the day pass
27dec: travel to Kusatsu, shinkansen to karuizawa then bus
29dec: travel to Tokyo via either bus or cheap train
5 Jan: travel to Narita, return home

I'm relieved it's done, all in all comes cheaper as the 14 day JR pass - still expensive though!! Can't believe I spent my day off on this :P I even made an excel with all different route options and prices..

Thank you all!!