Thoughts on itinerary and should I get 7 day or 14 day pass.

Hi there,

With a couple of small changes, I would recommend using a 7 day JR Pass.

Most travel by far is in the period day 5 - day 9 (a 5 day period). Leaving 2 days for a 7 day JR Pass, you could visit Nikko with it as well and I would visit Himeji on the route from Hiroshima - Kyoto, as it is directly on the route. You can just get off the train and walk around Himeji before traveling on the Kyoto. This way you would have all your Shinkansen covered using a 7 day JR Pass.

Hope this helps,
Daniel

Sounds good, although I just realized I wouldn't have the jr pass for getting to narita airport from kyoto I assume that would be a bit costly.

That's correct but you would still make very good savings with a 7 day JR Pass.

At the same time, you do enough travel for a 14 day JR Pass to pay off. This option would also allow you more flexibility.

If I do this itinerary I might be better off, I'll activate on day 5 - 12. Getting to narita from hakone shouldn't be to costly and hakone would be nice to experience onsens.

day 1 : narita - tokyo
day 2: tokyo
day 3: tokyo - day trip nikko
day 4: tokyo
day 5: tokyo - kyoto
Day 6: kyoto - nara
day 7: kyoto
day 8: kyoto - day trip himeji castle
Day 9: kyoto
Day 10: kyoto - hiroshima
Day 11: hiroshima - hakone
Day 12: hakone
Day 13: hakone - narita fight leaves 2:30 p.m

Hello again and sorry for the late reply.

This would also work well, if you use the JR Pass from day 5 - 12.

If you want to save a bit on transport cost from Hakone to Nikko, consider using local trains. These do take longer but the fare is about half compared to that of the Shinkansen.