14 or 21 Day Pass?

Hi there!

Hmm - a tricky one! As it looks like you will have a clear 14 days of travel between the Osaka and Tokyo parts, perhaps the best way to help is to look at the absolute price difference between the 14 and 21 day passes to get an idea of the amount you'll have to spend on these remaining days to make the upgrade to 21 days worth it:

• 14 day: ¥45,100 / ¥3221 per day
• 21 day: ¥57,700 / ¥2747 per day (+¥12,600 over 14 day pass)

Although the 21 day is more expensive, per day it works out cheaper than the 14 day pass. The key question is whether you will do the required ¥12,600 worth of travel in your Tokyo and Osaka days to make it worthwhile.

For example, A day trip to Nikko will be around ¥10,000 return, and the trip out to Narita on the Narita Express is around ¥3000. You are right that you cannot use the JR Pass on the Tokyo metro, but you can make good use of the JR lines in and around Tokyo and Osaka if you plan correctly (here's a map of JR lines in Tokyo for reference).

In the end though it will be down to whether you do a decent day trip on your Tokyo/Osaka days which will decide if the 21 day pass is worthwhile over the 14 day.

Hope this helps!