Entertainer visa

I will be traveling to Japan with an entertainer visa and work there for a week. After that I have a friend joining me for two more weeks and we are planning to travel around in Japan. My friend will get a JR-pass but since I'm not able to I'm now looking for options. Is my only option to buy single tickets? Or is there any option on a suica-card for a similar thing, maybe a bit more expensive, or so? I just wish to have the same freedom and fixed price as the JR-pass.
Please let me know if anyone done a similar thing and have some good advices for us to make our travel as joyful as it would have been if we both had the chance to get a JR-pass.