Is my 14 day JR pass worth it?

Hi there,

A 14 day pass will make sense if you intend on spending over ¥45,100 on JR train tickets. Calculating the cost for your trips, your legs will be:

1. Osaka > Nara: ¥780, (62mins, 48km)
2. Nara > Hiroshima: ¥10590, (167mins, 393km)
3. Hiroshima > Kyoto: ¥10590, (126mins, 380km)
4. Kyoto > Nagoya: ¥5240, (51mins, 147km)
5. Nagoya > Tokyo: ¥10380, (107mins, 366km)

TOTAL: ¥37580 for 5 legs

This means that you will need to spend another ¥7520 on the JR system to make the Rail Pass financially worthwhile. There are other benefits a JR Pass brings - you have flexibility to change your itinerary, and you can just hop on and hop off trains without having to worry about purchasing tickets and so on. For many, even if it's a slightly more expensive option the Japan Rail Pass is still a good choice.

There are lots of ideas for day trips on this forum, and depending on your dates you may be able to also include the costs of travel to and from airports (I left these out of your costs as I don't know your dates).

You can look up train timetables and costs at the Hyperdia travel planning website and learn how to use Hyperdia for Japan Rail Pass holders through our video blog.

Hope this helps!