Get a kansai pass?Or will JR be alright?

We will be going to Japan for 2 weeks, four of those days we will be in Kyoto. We have a 7 day JR pass which we will be activating for these days. I've been looking at travel for kyoto, osaka, nara hiroshima, (as these are places we would be interested in visiting) via the bus, subway, and everything that we cannot use our JR pass for. Would it be a good idea to get a kansai thru pass, or just buy tickets specific for where we are. For example, one day kyoto sightseeing pass which includes subways and buses.OR will we be ok just on our JR pass? I'm very confused by all the different companies and it's proving to be very difficult getting information specifically, the restrictions on a lot of the passes. Be great if someone had some input as we leave in a few days time.

Charlie.

The 7 day JR Rail Pass is very good for long distance train travel. It pays off with one Kyoto Hiroshima return and one Kyoto Himeji return by hikari shinkansen. You can use to Nara and to Osaka. But within these cities there is no JR transport (except one loop line in Osaka ). Hiroshima it is streetcar, but to Miyajima island you can go by JR train and a JR ferry. Himeji is walking 15 min between station and castle. Osaka JR loop and non-JR subway, in Kyoto it is non-JR subway and non-JR bus, among the buses there is a Yen 500 dayticket for the City Buses, what cover most of inner-Kyoto.

You can get detailed info on all sorts of tickets and passes by looking at Japan A-Z at the top of this page. check transportation, railways, train passes. You should also Google Kyoto tourist info at raku.city.kyoto.jp/sight_e.phtml
once in Kyoto look for the tourist office inside the JR Kyoto station (mezzanine on the west side). you can get lots of tourist info on Osaka etc. by Googling it. paper guidebooks like Lonely Planet also gives you basic info. All you need is to spend time as there are lots of choices and only you can choose what is best or more practical for you. Travelling within Japan isn't any more complicated than travelling within Europe.