JRパス

Hi Wendy!

You're certainly packing in a lot! Lets take a look at your costs:

1. Narita airport terminal 1 > Tokyo: ¥3140, (62mins, 79km)
2. Tokyo > Kyoto: ¥13420, (165mins, 513km)
3. Kyoto > Osaka: ¥540, (28mins, 42km)
4. Osaka > Nara: ¥780, (62mins, 48km)
5. Nara > Osaka: ¥780, (55mins, 48km)
6. Osaka > Hiroshima: ¥10150, (103mins, 345km)
7. Hiroshima > Kobe: ¥10150, (103mins, 345km)
8. Kobe > Osaka: ¥10150, (103mins, 345km)
9. Osaka > Nikko: ¥18420, (318mins, 706km)
10. Nikko > Nagano: ¥10980, (186mins, 311km)
11. Nagano > Omagari(akita): ¥20370, (253mins, 772km)
12. Omagari(akita) > Tokyo: ¥16510, (216mins, 610km)
13. Tokyo > Narita airport terminal 1: ¥3140, (58mins, 79km)

TOTAL: ¥118530 for 13 legs

Well - there's no doubt that a rail pass will be good value here :)

Looking at recommendations, you have some pretty busy periods in there. Maybe I can suggest a slightly reduced itinerary?

For both financial and time reasons I would recommend you decide on either doing the trip to Omagari or the trip to Hiroshima and Nara. You have 9 days worth of specific travel days planned that needs to fit in a 7 day rail pass (excluding to/from the airport) - so no matter which way we cut it you're going to need to remove or compress some of your days. As your itinerary is pretty full already, I recommend removing rather than compressing further - you really don't want to spend all your time on the train!

Here is a suggested itinerary excluding Omagari with a few more days snowboarding in Shiga-kogen or in Tokyo, this itinerary also removes the Kobe stop from your plans. You have a few busy days of travel in here (Hiroshima day trip and Osaka to Nikko), but in general the spacing is pretty good. The 7 day rail pass starts from the 7th:

1. Tokyo > Kyoto: ¥13420, (165mins, 513km)
2. Kyoto > Osaka: ¥540, (28mins, 42km)
3. Osaka > Nara: ¥780, (62mins, 48km)
4. Nara > Osaka: ¥780, (55mins, 48km)
5. Osaka > Hiroshima: ¥10150, (103mins, 345km)
6. Hiroshima > Osaka: ¥10820, (109mins, 345km)
7. Osaka > Nikko: ¥18420, (318mins, 706km)
8. Nikko > Nagano: ¥10980, (186mins, 311km)

total: ¥65890 for 8 legs

This will all fit into a 7 day rail pass at ¥28,300 - a large saving of ¥37,590 over separate tickets

On top of this, you will need to purchase a return N'EX/suica travel ticket combo for your trip from and to the airport and some metro travel around Tokyo and the return bullet train from Nagano to Tokyo after snowboarding:

1. Narita Express + metro card (N'EX+suica): ¥5,500 (this is by far the best deal for travel)
2. Nagano > Tokyo: ¥8,170 (alternatively, you can get the bus from Nagano to Tokyo for around ¥4000)

extra tickets: ¥13,670

TOTAL SPEND ON TRAVEL: ¥28,300+¥13,670 = ¥41,970 per person

Phew! I know this isn't getting it all in to a 7 day pass, but I think this is about the best I can do without really limiting what you do on your trip.

Hope this helps!