sanyo area JR pass or regular ticket?

Opps sorry about the last posting with nothing in it! I will be travelling from Hakata to Osaka on the 29th March and then staying in Osaka til the 31st moving on to kyoto and til the 2nd of April (leaving Japan from Kansai Airport). Can anyone tell me if I am better off purchasing a Sanyo area JR pass for 20,000yen to get from Hakata to Osaka and then use the remainder of the pass for my travels in the Kansai region (I know I will still need to purchase a ticket back to the airport as it will have expired by then) or if I am just better off buying the shinkansen ticket of 14500 from Hakata to osaka and paying for travel around the kansai region. I looked at the JR West - Kansai pass to use in the area but it wont let me use the shinkansens (I figured that would be the best and quickest way to get from osaka to kyoto). I will be traveling around osaka-kyoto with my sister and her husband who have 14 day JR pass so they will probably want to use their passes to get from kyoto to kansai airport. Can anyone offer me advice on what train pass (if any) will suit me better. I will also need to get one for my 9 year old son. Also can anyone tell me if I am traveling with 2 younger children as well (4 & 1) if they are both free on the bullet trains etc if they are only travelling with 1 adult and1 9 year old child.

The Sanyo Pass does not provide transportation in the Kansai area, only between Kansai Airport and Osaka and along the Sanyo Line. For example, it does not cover transportation to Kyoto or Nara, nor any non-JR transportation, which is particularly useful in Kyoto.

So, I recommend buying regular tickets for the shinkansen and use regular tickets, prepaid cards or day passes for the Kansai area.

Unless you are making any other shinkansen trips (hiroshima or something) then I wouldn't get the JR Sanyo pass. You don't need to catch the shinkansen from Osaka to Kyoto because you can catch a normal train for 500yen that only takes about half an hour.

You could get the JR West Kansai pass if you want to use it for the airport as well as to tour around the Kansai area to Nara, Kobe, Himeji etc. In Kyoto most sights are reached by bus so you won't use your JR pass there.

Is there some sort of bus pass or do we just pay for those individually around kyoto? Will take the normal train between osaka and kyoto if its only 500yen. Does anyone know how how much the discount shinkansen tickets (hakata to osaka) are if I get them the shops near hakata-eki and do they also sell child tickets?

If you catch more than 2 buses in one day then you should get the Kyoto 'all day bus pass' for 500yen. You can buy them from the bus information centre outside Kyoto station.