So I did research before coming to Japan and had everything planned out for when my friend and I were going to be here in Japan. However I was looking over the JR Pass site again and just found out that the JR Pass does not apply to people carrying a student visa, which both my friend and I have as we are studying abroad for a semester. We were relying on being able to use the 14-day JR Pass for our 2 weeks of travel before we go back to the states. Can anyone suggest other methods of use getting discounts in JR lines?
Here is our itinerary. We'll be leaving from Sapporo. So we would start from there.
Sapporo to Akihabara
Tokyo (we'll be staying in Akihabara for all 5 days)
1) Akihabara (2days)
2) Shibuya (1 day)
3) Shinjuku (1 day)
4) Harajuku (1 day)
Akihabara to Kyoto
1) Kyoto (2 days) (we'll be staying in Kyoto all 5 days)
2) Nara (1 day)
3) Osaka (2 days)
Kyoto to Hiroshima
Hiroshima (3 days)
We have student ID cards, but I don't know if the JR student discount applies to foreign exchange students. However I did find this: http://japantravellight.com/jr-student-pass.shtml
Our 14 days of travel would be between the winter days of validity as we'll leave on December 20th and our last day is January 3rd. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know as soon as possible.