Hello tokyo hello kyoto

You don't give us a heckuva lot to go on here. We can only assume you fly into Tokyo, train to Kyoto, and ...? What? Are you planning to go elsewhere? Which airport are you using to leave Japan?

If you're just doing Tokyo-Kyoto roundtrip, its not worth it.

flying into tokyo narita on 1st - two days in tokyo, then want to spend two days in kyoto via train. then fly out of narita on the 5th day.

hope that clarifies?

thanks

I think you would save money with the JR pass.

Besides these 2 train trips it will also allow you to take any other trip you might decide to take. You might just decide to go Hiromshima for a day trip, something you probably would not do without the JR pass due to the cost of Shinkansen tickets.

will NOT save money compared to just 2 singles (retrun they dont have) on SKS TYO-KYo, but all other trips come 'free/included' and thats worth it. ALSO ; a MUCH cheaper overntie drambus links these 2 cties, you might use it 1 direction and have that nottobemissed JPN exper. re the shinkansen the other way.

I think a JR pass would be convenient and economical.
JR Narita Express is 2940-yen each way.
Tokyo-Kyoto by Shinkansen is 12710-yen (unreserved, normal season) each way.
So that adds up to 31300-yen, compared with the cost of a 7-day pass being 28300-yen.
Plus you get the added benefit of using all the JR suburban and regional trains, e.g. Yamanote-sen in Tokyo, or the JR train from Kyoto to Nara or Osaka.
And it is very convenient to be able to walk through the ticket gate and not deal with ticket machines all the time.