Is this planning worth a 14-day JR Pass?

Hi,

I'm confused about getting or not a JR Pass for 14 days.

Here's my itinerary:

Note: I'd be activating my JR Pass on the 3rd day of my trip. So I will be 2 days since I arrive in Tokyo.

Day 1: Activate JR Pass. Tokyo to Yokohama.
Day 2: Yokohama to Tokyo, Tokyo to Kanazawa.
Day 4: Kanazawa to Shirakawago, Shirakawago to Takayama.
Day 6: Takayama to Kyoto
Day 7: Kyoto to Nara, Nara to Kyoto.
Day 8: Kyoto to Miyajima, Miyajima to Kyoto.
Day 10: Kyoto to Osaka.
Day 11: Osaka to Himeji, Himeji to Osaka.
Day 12: Osaka to Kobe, Kobe to Osaka.
Day 13: Osaka to Hakone.
Day 14: Hakone to Tokyo.

According to JR Calculator, price would be around 80000 yen (74.590 would be covered by JR Pass), but I'm not entirely sure about additional costs & savings that may influence purchasing or not JRP-14.

What would be the best option here?

Thanks!

That ain't gonna pay off

1) You won't be able to use the Nozomi, which makes your travel times longer.
2) Miyajima day trip: starting from Osaka might be faster depending on the hotel's location)
3) Have a look at the Kansai Hiroshima pass. https://www.westjr.co.jp/global/en/ticket/pass/kansai_hiroshima/
I have a feeling it might be less expensive to buy that pass, and Tokyo-Kanazawa + Osaka-Hakone-Tokyo separately.

This is not a direct answer to your question but I would like to show you some thoughts.

First, you will travel for 14 days (plus 2 days in Tokyo?) and have 11 destinations which I think is too much.
Second, you will do some day trips, but it will take more time than just visit place A on the way to place B. Third, you don't mention when you will travel. If it's spring or summer you may consider night bus, for example from Shinjuku to Takayama, but in winter, the bus will arrive too early. Actually, operating date for this bus is from April 7 to November 4 for 2023.
Fourth you don't mention your traveling style. I strongly recommend you to travel with one "check in size" backpack, but this may not fit with your style.

I would just guess you are a young solo active traveller traveling in spring to summer and suggest an alternative itinerary.

Day 1 Night bus from Shinjuku to Takayama.

https://www.nouhibus.co.jp/highwaybus/shinjuku_en/

Day 2 Explore Takayama and stay there.

Day 3 Bus to Shirakawago and then Kanazawa.

Day 4 Shinkansen to Tsuruga and then Thunderbird limited express to Shin-Osaka and then to Hiroshima (about 6 hours). Buy JR Kansai Hiroshima Area pass and use it from Tsuruga. You must disembark at Tsuruga to get the pass, but in any case you must transfer at Tsuruga from Shinkansen to Thunderbird. Stay 2 nights in Hiroshima.

Day 5. Explore Hiroshima and Miyajima.

Day 6. Hiroshima to Himeji (Himeji castle), Shin-Kobe (Nunobiki garden) and finally Nara (via Shin-Osaka). Stay Nara for 2 nights.

Day 7 Explore Nara.

Day 8. JR train to Kyoto. End of the JR Kansai Hiroshima Area pass. Stay Kyoto for 3 nights.

Day 9-10. Explore Kyoto.

Day 11 Shinkansen to Tokyo. I don�ft recommend Hakone, since your chance to see Mt Fuji in spring/summer season is rather low.

You will have 3 spare days. You may add 1 night at Kanazawa and Kyoto and visit Okuhida onsen close to Takayama 1 night.

Not sure what you are doing with a calculator, but that schedule is nowhere near 80,000 yen. Yes, there are some seriously inefficient back-tracking, but I would be budgeting around 60k for something like that, well short of the 14-day national pass price.

That itinerary does not pay off, as you are not able to use the Nozomi Shinkansen on a JR pass.
Jordan only lists Nozomi options unless you check a JR Pass in the "Tourist Pass" section: that will give you "Non Nozomi" options, and it definitely does not pay off

I have always found the 14-day JR pass to be a product that is harder to get value from then either the 7-day pass or the 21-day pass, and that is much more true now after the huge price increase. With a 14-day pass it is very hard to achieve a nice balance of days involving several hours of long-distance train travel (either one-way or round-trip) with days where you stay in one place and only use local transit. I think your itinerary makes reasonable sense if you want to visit all those particular places in a 14-day period (I see that you have in fact allowed for some �gdays in place,�h and I like the idea of your day trips from Kyoto and Osaka), but with the current price of the pass I can�ft see it �gpaying off.�h Furthermore, in trying to make it do so, you might end up doing things like using JR to get from Kyoto to Nara or from Kyoto to Osaka when there are better alternatives, or using the shinkansen to get to Kobe (which dumps you off at Shin-Kobe). I didn�ft actually �gdo the math�h myself, but I�fm sure that you don�ft have anywhere near enough sensible JR travel to make the pass worthwhile. You might want to re-imagine your itinerary without constraining yourself to the nationwide JR pass. (I didn�ft study frog1954�fs alternative plan, but that is an example of what I mean.) Even when a given rail pass DOES pay off, there always seem to be at least some downsides�c

You might get good value out of one of the regional passes for getting around Kansai and to Himeji and Miyajima (bearing in mind that they do not cover the shinkansen from Kyoto to Osaka, but that is a relatively minor detail).

5 day Kansai-Hiroshima pass.

The Nara day to the Himeji day.

Pay one way tix for the rest.

Please be aware also there is no rail access to Shirakawago. You'll need to pay for a bus or rent a car.