Hi there,
I'm headed to Japan mid November with my husband and 1 year old son, i've roughly calculated (if i've calculated corrrectly!) that the cost of travel within Japan, with our itinerary, would be similar to just purchasing tickets when we're there as it would be purchasing the JR pass... so a couple of questions:
1 - is it worth getting the JR pass at all? (should we just 'pay as we go'?)
2 - should we get the 7 or 14 day pass?
Our itinerary:
Day 1: Arrive Narita airport - travel to Tokyo
Day 2-6: Tokyo (looking at potentially doing some day trips: Lake Kawaguchi, Nikko, Kamakura)
Day 7: Travel Tokyo to Hakone (want to do the Hakone loop)
Day 8: Hakone
Day 9: Travel Hakone - Kyoto
Day 10-14: Kyoto (day trips to Nara and Osaka)
Day 15: Travel Kyoto-Narita
And any additional tips or advice would be welcome!
Thanks
Comments
A 14 day pass would not pay off for your plans. A 7 day pass used between Days 9-15 would still leave you a little short as well - but if you added a day or half day trip to Himeji (which has Japan's finest castle) you could make it pay off.
If you want a 14 day pass to pay off, you'd need to do something like add a day trip to Hiroshima/Miyajima, which is also well worth it and doable with an early morning start.
Regarding the day trips from Tokyo, a 7 day pass plus a Tokyo Wide Pass would still come up cheaper than the 14 day pass, so there is that consideration as well.
For the Fuji area, the JR passes are of limited benefit. If you combine seeing the Fuji 5 Lakes area with Hakone, then the Odakyu passes can help.
http://www.odakyu.jp/english/deels/
You can see some videos of the places you'll probably go to see on:
https://www.youtube.com/user/thejapanfaq/videos