2 Week Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka Trip. JR railpass?

Hello Everyone,

My girlfriend and I will be making a trip to japan early December. We were trying to see if a JR railpass would be worth it or if we should just get a suica/pasmo card and buy individual shinkansen tickets (I believe wefd only need to take a shinkansen train from Tokyo to Kyoto and vice versa?). At the beginning of our trip planning we were just going to get a 14 day JR railpass, but after more research and seeing how much it is compared to what wefd want to do, we were thinking of other alternative options. This would be roughly our itinerary.

- Dec 3 land at Narita airport and travel to Tokyo
- Night dec 3 to night dec 7 stay in Tokyo, shinjuku area and travel around to different areas (Akihabara, Shibuya, harujuku, Tokyo Disney etc)
- Dec 8 travel to Kyoto
- Night dec 8 to night dec 12 stay in Kyoto with a day trip to Osaka somewhere in between here.
- Dec 13 travel back to Tokyo
- Night dec 13 to night dec 14 stay in Tokyo again and go to places that we wanted to but couldnft hit the first time
- Dec 15 travel to narita and fly home

Any help is appreciated!

I would just go with an IC card and individual Shinkansen tickets.

You could get a 7 day pass but it would require some daytrips and has the added inconvenience that you canft take the Nozomi Shinkansen (faster and more frequent). And that you gcanft takeh private raillines, eg Hankyu in Kyoto are which might simply be easier to get to the place where you want to go.

Enjoy your trip to Japan!

Yes, a Tokyo IC card can also be used in Kansai.

If you changed your itinerary so that the round trip between Tokyo and Kansai and the travel to Narita airport fall within 7 days, a 7-day JR Pass would be cost-effective.

Thanks for the advice! If we do go that route, can IC cards be used outside of Tokyo while wefre in Kyoto and Osaka?

Ok itfs looking like maybe wefll just get an IC card for the beginning of our trip in Tokyo and then when we travel to Kyoto use a 7 day JR railpass. Might be cutting it close though as is because wefd be traveling to Kyoto on the 8th, and then on the 15th wefd traveling to narita airport from Tokyo. Thatfs exactly 7 days.

No, that is 8 days... 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15.....8 days. So your N'Ex is not valid with an expired pass. It is calendar days.

If you're going to do a lot of metro riding in Tokyo and you're not getting the JR pass, you might look into this offer using the Keisei Skyliner to get to or from Narita to Ueno.
https://www.keisei.co.jp/keisei/tetudou/skyliner/us/tickets/subway.php

Another option is the discount shinkansen eVoucher offered by Japanican - around 23,000 yen Tokyo-Kyoto return. I've never used one (not eligible) and there is specific exchange/redemption process to go through.
If your time of day is flexible, you can also get advance purchase discount tickets which makes the round trip 21,600 (travel between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.).

Thank you everyone! Ifll look into all your suggestions.