Do we need to buy JR Pass?

We are going to japan from Jan 19, 2019 to Feb 2, 2018. We plan our trip from:
Osaka-Nara-Kyoto-Shirakawago-Hakuba-Hakone-Tokyo
We need recomendation about our trip for the transportation and accomodation. Do we need to buy JR-Pass?
Thank you

Hi,
I would recommend you to buy the JR Pass as it is much cheaper to travel all around Japan from the moment you take 2 Shinkansen. According to what you are saying, I think that this would be worth it ;)

Just don't take too much time though, and don't forget to buy it before you come to Japan!

Thierry from Easy Life Japan, www.easylifejapan.com

You can calculate here:
https://www.japan-guide.com/railpass/

Consider:
- pass is valid 7 (or 14) CONSECUTIVE days
- only on JR trains.
- you cannot take Nozomi Shinkansen which are the fastest and most frequent

Enjoy planning your trip to Japan!

No you dont need a JR pass.

You never "need" a rail pass - the question is if you'd save money with one. By my calculations, you'd still be a bit short of breaking even.
Also, I hope you are aware that there is no rail access to Shirakawago - you must pay for the bus from Takayama or Kanazawa.
Plus, going from Hakuba to Hakone would be pretty painful and brutal - it would almost completely murder the day.

Thank you for all the response
First we plan to buy 7 day JR Pass, we will just use it half of out trip from kyoto to shirakawa until the end to tokyo

Do you think this is already the best route trip? Or is it others better?

And aso Ken, i just wondering about you said the brutal way to hakuba and hakone, is it very terrible or what? Too crowded?

It's as I mentioned above. If you wanted to use trains as much as possible because you have a rail pass, you would take over 6 hours to get to Odawara, and then another couple hours to get all the way into Hakone.
You could cut the time a bit if you paid for a bus and go by way of the Fuji 5 Lakes, but either way, it is going to be very long and tiring.

There a a few websites where you can plug in your itinerary and it will tell you if itfs economical to purchase a pass. From the looks you should.

Look up the journeys and see what the cost is.
This will take about 5 minutes.
Then decide whether to buy the pass or not.
Itfs really easy.

it is much cheaper to travel all around Japan from the moment you take 2 Shinkansen
False (and misleading).
For that route, single tickets are cheaper, and some of the places are best reached by non-JR line.

Osaka-Nara-Kyoto-Shirakawago-Hakuba-Hakone-Tokyo

Shirakawago, Hakuba and Hakone are rather remote places with no Shinkansen access. Among them Shirakawago is an unique place but if you want to see snow in Hakuba and Mt Fuji in Hakone, there are more convenient option like Joetsu-Myoko, Nagano and Kawaguchiko. If you travel from Shirakawago to Hakuba and Hakuba to Hakone, both will kill your entire days.

it is much cheaper to travel all around Japan from the moment you take 2 Shinkansen

Just to echo this - the number of times you board the shinkansen has no bearing on whether a rail pass will pay off - it depends how far you travel on it. I see the misinformation quoted above on some other fora from time to time.
As far as the itinerary goes, there are different ways you can do it - via Nagoya/Takayama or Kanazawa for instance. The JG calculator only works to a point - it does not include Hakuba, so you really have to plug in each leg in a site like Hyperdia.
http://www.hyperdia.com

>>>The JG calculator only works to a point - it does not include Hakuba, so you really have to plug in each leg in a site like Hyperdia.<<< Yes.
And even then those rail pass calculators are only a rough guide. Certainly for people that use the train system extensively know by just looking if it is a clear-cut choice or not. If it's not obvious, then the rail passes are often more hassle than a few thousand yen of savings.
PLUS, there are other tricks, discounts and options available that those pass calculators simply cannot build in (and even Hyperdia doesn't provide exact answers when doing trips with stop-overs).

Yes, you will save lots of time and money using the JR Rail pass. Make sure to buy it before you come to Japan.

Cheers

If we choose to go to Yamanouchi, Nagano anda Kawaguchiko where we prefer to stay? Is better to stay at each city one night? Or we look for the central of those area?

Where in Yamanouchi?

Just to warn you now, getting from Nagano to Kawaguchiko was ~250 minutes going by Hyperdia and sadly at that point it's almost faster to go down to Tokyo and just take a bus for 2 hours. It might be a little better from Matsumoto or Hakuba but it's still going to be a long trip.

Neither Kawaguchiko or Hakone are particularly convenient to the other locations you've posted. If you're going to be in Tokyo long enough I would just day trip from Tokyo rather than when you're traveling from Osaka to Nagano-ken.

Good luck!

Just to echo this - the number of times you board the shinkansen has no bearing on whether a rail pass will pay off - it depends how far you travel on it. I see the misinformation quoted above on some other fora from time to time.
As far as the itinerary goes, there are different ways you can do it - via Nagoya/Takayama or Kanazawa for instance. The JG calculator only works to a point - it does not include Hakuba, so you really have to plug in each leg in a site like Hyperdia.

If we choose to go to Yamanouchi, Nagano anda Kawaguchiko where we prefer to stay? Is better to stay at each city one night? Or we look for the central of those area?

Simple as it seems to flash a JR pass every time you board a train, itfs really not that hard nor is it expensive to buy train tickets as you go. This is especially true on short distance routes. Kyoto to Osaka for example, costs just \410 (~$3.60 USD) and takes a little over an hour by regular train (JR takes just as long). Needless to say, the average \4,158 ($37 USD) daily cost of a 7-day JR pass would not pay itself off for that dayfs trip!

Simple as it seems to flash a JR pass every time you board a train, itfs really not that hard nor is it expensive to buy train tickets as you go. This is especially true on short distance routes. Kyoto to Osaka for example, costs just \410 (~$3.60 USD) and takes a little over an hour by regular train (JR takes just as long). Needless to say, the average \4,158 ($37 USD) daily cost of a 7-day JR pass would not pay itself off for that dayfs trip!