We are planning our first trip to Japan in mid-Novermber of this year. We arrive in Tokyo on Saturday 8 November (late afternoon arrival time), and depart on Monday 24 November (late afternoon departure time). Not counting our arrival or departure days, we will have 15 full days.
Here is what I have been thinking about our itinerary (all departure and arrival times are estimates, but I believe should be roughly correct, if I am reading the HyperDia website correctly):
Day 0: Flight arrival at Tokyo Narita 16:00. Evening in Tokyo. Sleep Tokyo.
Day 1: Tokyo. Sleep Tokyo.
Day 2: Early train to Nikko (depart 8:00), arrive Nikko 10:00, day in Nikko. Sleep Nikko.
Day 3: Morning and lunch in Nikko. Mid-afternoon train (depart 14:00?) Nikko-Tokyo-Hakone, transfer to Lake Kawaguchi. Arrive Lake Kawaguchi. 18:00-19:00. Sleep Lake Kawaguchi.
Day 4: Day around Hakone/Lake Kawaguchi. Sleep Lake Kawaguchi.
Day 5: Early train from Hakone to Kyoto. Arrive Kyoto mid-afternoon (15:00?). Afternoon and evening in Kyoto. Sleep Kyoto.
Day 6: Kyoto. Sleep Kyoto.
Day 7: Kyoto. Sleep Kyoto.
Day 8: Day trip from Kyoto to Nara, returning Nara to Osaka. Sleep Osaka.
Day 9: Osaka. Sleep Osaka.
Day 10: Morning in Osaka. Depart Osaka around 12:00 noon to Takayama. Arrive Takayama 15:00. Sleep Takayama.
Day 11: Morning in Takayama, with short afternoon day trip to Shirakawa-go, return to Takayama by dark. Sleep Takayama.
Day 12: Morning train Takayama to Tokyo, arrive Tokyo 13:00. Afternoon in Tokyo. Sleep Tokyo.
Day 13: Tokyo. Sleep Tokyo.
Day 14: Tokyo. Sleep Tokyo.
Day 15: Tokyo. Sleep Tokyo.
Day 16: Morning in Tokyo, then to airport after lunchtime, for a 16:00 flight departure, fly home.
I think this itinerary will work, although I have some concerns about the following:
Day 3, where we plan to leave Nikko around 14:00 and plan to arrive at Lake Kawaguchi around 18:30.
In general, I prefer to minimize "one night stands" (places where we only spend one night, and then quickly move on) because I know if we do that too many times (or several days in a row) it is not an efficient use of our time (and we become more tired) with the constant check-in, check-out - I prefer to have some days where we are not changing accommodations, so we have a place to come home to after sightseeing all day. Although my itinerary does have one single-night stay, it is early in the trip and I think we will recover.
I also like to mix up time in big cities with time out in smaller towns or countryside. Although this trip has about 7 or 8 full days in large cities (Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka) is also has an equal number of days in smaller towns.
I believe we will have a 14-day JR pass for this trip. We would also need to pay for transportation between Narita and Tokyo at both ends of the trip, but if we activated the pass on Day 3 (Tokyo to Nikko), I think the JR pass should cover all our other train travel (except for one day in Tokyo at the end - I assume we will be getting a subway pass for that).
I would welcome any input on this itinerary, especially opinions on whether this is a realistic amount of travel (does any day look very crazy?), and if you have any better ideas for organizing these places into 15 day trip.
Thank you for your help!