Hotel Planning and JR Pass

We will be flying into Haneda airport and staying for about 6 days/5 nights. We definitely want to visit Kyoto, Osaka and other places towards the West and thinking to purchase the JR Pass. The question is trying to figure if we should stay at one hotel in Toyko for the entire stay and travel each day to the West or book a night or 2 out in Osaka?
We are a family of 4 and will be carrying quite a few luggage since we are during multi-city Asia tour.
I read the fast bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto is not part of the JR Pass.
What is the travel time for the other trains out West if any and is it a good idea to just do day trips instead?

Any suggestions? Thank you!

Hi. Even the fastest train from Tokyo to Kyoto takes nearly 2 1/2 hours so day trips arent ideal. With 6 nights it isnt a huge amount of time, I wouldnt bother with Osaka at all and to be honest if you are wanting to spend a lot of time in Tokyo I wouldnt bother with Kyoto either as there are a lot of places closer to Tokyo that you can see as day trips which have similar things, eg Kamakura, Enoshima, Nikko. Kyoto has a huge amount of things to see and do, but trying to jam 5 or six big ticket items into a full day would be just a bundle of stress in my opinion, and not enjoyable.

6D/5N is not much time. See this sample itinerary for reference. https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2400_tokyo_4.html

Personally, with 6D/5N period, I would spend ALL of it in (a) Tokyo area, or (b) Kyoto and Nara.

It depends on specific dates you are traveling, but there are many newly opened hotels in Kyoto which have multi-bed rooms so you might better consider staying one of them, if you are traveling to Kansai region. Honestly, most interesting places in Kansai area are in Kyoto so you might better concentrating on them. As many posters in this forum say Kyoto is no more the way it was, due to increasing tourism, but I think still it has some beauty if you choose right places on right time (such as Nanzenji in the early morning, including Hojo garden, Tenjuan temple and Konchi-in temple).

With 5 nights, I would stay 1st and last nights in around Haneda Airport, take round trip flights to Osaka's Itami Airport. 2nd to 4th nights are in Kyoto. JAL and ANA provide promotional fare for foreign tourists which is around 80 USD one way.