7 days pass or 4 days flexible

Hi there,

As the 4 day pass will not cover the bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto, in your case I do not recommend any of the JR Passes!

I recommend you purchase:

1. [Narita Express + Suica prepaid metro card package] purchased at Narita on arrival will get you into town and give you ¥1500 of free metro or JR travel, allowing you to explore the city for the first 3 days. You can also purchase unlimited metro passes at Narita if needed.
2. Single JR shinkansen ticket from Tokyo to Kyoto
3. Kyoto and [Osaka] subway tickets as needed
4. The transfer from [Kyoto to Osaka on JR]
5. [The travel from Osaka to Kansai airport]

This will all come to around ¥20,000 and will include metro travel and bus travel within Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto along with transfers to and from the airports.

If you were returning to Tokyo I would certainly recommend the 7 day Japan Rail Pass for your situation however as you depart from Kansai I don't think it's the correct choice for you.

Hope this helps!

where I can buy all these tikets, I have to buy before I go to Japan or I can buy in Narita? the train Tokyo / Kyoto is the bullet train with reserve places? ¥ 1500 these are a credit to use in Tokyo? in the subway?
Thankyou!

Hi there,

Purchasing tickets

You can purchase (1), (2), (4) and (5) at JR ticket offices on arrival into various stations on your trip. You could also purchase all of them on arrival into Narita airport at the JR counter there.

For (4), you are able to purchase these at Kyoto and Osaka stations - visit the tourism information desks at each station for more information, or purchase directly from the ticket windows/machines.

Reserved seats and ¥1500 Suica card validity

The Tokyo > Kyoto bullet train I link to does includes the reserved seat charge so you should be fine there.

The ¥1500 card is a credit for use on all metro/subway and JR trains within Tokyo. You can budget around ¨¥200 per trip, so that will be around 7 trips. You can recharge the card at vending machines in most metro stations if needed.

A note on flexibility

By purchasing individual tickets, although the current calculation works out to be less than the cost of a JR Pass, you do loose the flexibility and price limit that a JR Pass gives you on travel. Only you can decide on the amount of flexibility you'll need so please take the above advice within this context - if you like a lot of flexibility a JR Pass could be the right choice for you.

Hope this helps!