Maximizing a 7-day pass

Hi,

Unfortunately, with your one way itinerary, a JR Pass does not pay off for you. You'd need to get a regular fare bullet train ticket, or you can fly down on a cheap air ticket on Jet Star or Peach. You can also get to/from Narita into Tokyo cheaply on a cheap 1000 yen bus.

You can still save some money though on regional passes. For your Day 4 you could go see Nikko (the earlier the better) and using a JR Kanto Area Pass is a great way to save money. For Hakone, there is a good pass for that too and yes, doing it alone is the ultimate freedom:

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5200.html

For the Kansai area, look into a JR Kansai Area Pass. Since you are already seeing Tokyo, you can largely skip Osaka during the day. After the temples of Kyoto close down around 5PM, you can zip over to Osaka for the evening. At night the city comes alive and has some great places to see, such as Dotonbori, plus the night views from the Umeda Sky Bldg, and Abeno Harukas Bldg are beautiful.

This is so valuable. I am over my head trying to reconcile all the available passes and if it is worth considering our itinerary. Thank you so much!