Hello! I’ll be travelling to Japan this year end and am rather bamboozled by the different transport options. Will be arriving at Narita Airport and departing from there as well. The areas I will be travelling to are Kawaguchiko, Mount Fuji; Kyoto and Tokyo. Hoping to seek some guidance on whether it’s feasible to purchase a Japan rail pass for this trip (1 week long) and if so what is the appropriate one I should get. Also any recommendations on areas nearby the above mentioned places that are worth travelling to?
The pass is usually a good idea. If you’re starting your trip in Tokyo and your trip is slightly longer than 7 calendar days, you can use the “Keisei skyliner pass online + 24 hour Tokyo metro” online deal for your journey into town and then activate your pass on the second day.
Also, you can use Hyperdia.com to see if booking the train tickets individually is cheaper than the pass.
Actually, this may not necessarily be a good trip for a JR Pass because Kawaguchiko is on a third-sector line and the JR trains that get you the closest are local expresses; buses are actually a bit faster according to Google Maps.
So you’d probably come out slightly ahead if you just bought a round-trip Shinkansen ticket for the Tokyo/Kyoto leg and then take one of the many highway buses that runs between Tokyo and Fuji for that part.