Itinerary and other random questions for travel over the new year

Hi Klynn!

Nice trip! I have never been to Namazu, what are you doing to do there?

The JR Pass won't cover the bus to Namazu but if you have a JRpass the train will take you there as well.
Here what it would look like it you took the train: http://tinyurl.com/ac2whw4

As you do most of your travel in your first 7 days I would recommend you use your JRPass on day 1 to 7.
When you exchange your JRPass you could make reservations for your travel in the New Year as well, to be sure you have a good seat. Or when you meet your friend you could go to any JR office with her and reserve tickets together. You could simple show your JRPass and she could buy her ticket and the JR Staff can assign you seats beside each other.

As for luggage on most trains there is ample room to put a suitcase or two. Still since you will be travelling around a lot, I would recommend a single suitcase that you can pull with you.

As for your last days in Tokyo it is easy to travel around using the Tokyo Metro. You can buy a all day pass there.
http://www.tokyometro.jp/en/ticket/value/1day/index.html

And for the trip back to Narita it is more than one hour from Tokyo. The simplest thing to do would be just to buy a single ticket for it on the day you leave. It is about 2000 yen when you take the local train or 3000 yen with the Narita Express. http://www.jrpass.com/blogs/jr-pass-on-the-narita-express.

Enjoy your Trip!
Daniel

To add - If your friend is already in Japan, then I recommend she places reservations for you both for the trip to Kyoto on day 2. There will be a small charge (which you may be able to refund on presentation of your JR Pass at the JR ticket office), but this is far preferable to not getting seating at all, or being sat separately I think.

Hope this helps!