Before the price increases, you could "pay off" a JR Pass with a single Narita Airport-Tokyo-Osaka roundtrip, it was cheaper than buying regular tickets for the

Before the price increases, you could "pay off" a JR Pass with a single Narita Airport-Tokyo-Osaka roundtrip, it was cheaper than buying regular tickets for the same distance and every additional train was "free". After the price hike, you could cross the entire country to Fukuoka and the pass would still cost more.