What other things may i need other than the JR Pass?

aj_con17

I'm from Vancouver,Canada and am planning on travelling on December 2017 16-30.

December
17: Arrive in the afternooon and spend the night in Tokyo
18: Train to Sapporo
19: Explore Sapporo
20: Explore Sapporo
21: Travel to Asahikawa and spend the night
22: Explore Asahikawa
23: Travel back to Tokyo
24,25: Explore Tokyo and spend Christmas with relatives
26: Travel to Jigokudani Monkey Park and try the Onsen
27:Travel to Kyoto
28:Explore Kyoto
29: Travel back to the area around the airport
30: Fly back home in the afternoon.

I'm more than open to make changes to my itinerary. It's my first time travelling alone and I want to really experience as much of Japan as possible with the two weeks.

Tenjin

To go from Tokyo to Sapporo by train will take you over 8 hours, and coming back from Asahikawa will take over 10 hours of just sitting on trains going nuts. Why would you murder 2 whole days doing that?

You can fly dirt cheap on a low cost carrier like Jet Star, Peach or Vanilla Air - getting there in 90 minutes for fares as as low as ¥4500 (CAD $51) one way.
http://www.jetstar.com/jp/en/home
http://www.flypeach.com/pc/en
http://www.vanilla-air.com/en/
Or fly straight from Asahikawa to Tokyo on ANA's Experience Japan fare for ¥10,800.
http://www.ana.co.jp/wws/us/e/wws_common/promotions/share/experience_jp/index.html

For the 29th, you should definitely take at least half a day and see Nara near Kyoto - it has some of Japan's best sights. The Todaiji Temple is a must.
After the temples of Kyoto close down around 5 PM, you can zip over to Osaka for the evening. At night the city comes alive and has some great places to see, such as Dotonbori, plus the night views from the Umeda Sky Bldg and Abeno Harukas Bldg are wonderful.
On another evening, you could also go and see Kobe.

You can see previews of some of the best places to see in Japan on:
https://www.youtube.com/user/thejapanfaq/videos

aj_con17

thanks TENJIN! I will do just that and fly to Sapporo. I figured taking the train would have been a nice experience to see the country side. Also, should I get the week JR pass and just pay as I go or get the two week pass?

Tenjin

A one week pass would make the most sense - you don't say which airport of Tokyo you are using, but if Narita, you can add some good savings if you use a 7 day pass for Dec 23-29, including the Narita Express.
Outside of the pass, the cheapest way to Narita is the 1000 yen bus.
http://accessnarita.jp/en/home/