Few weeks ago, had followed a debate about JR Pass vs japanican deal (which was 20% off regular fare) for NRT-Tokyo roundtrip and Tokyo-Kyoto roundtrip.

Glad that went with Suica/NEX and japanican alternative which while overall few dollars more expensive, ability to travel Nazomi (every 10 min) without any reservation to any specific train was a great flexibility over being tied down to Hikari. (On the other hand, if I had JR pass with me, I would have added some other stops such as Himeji or Nara or Nikko or even Hiroshima)