Hi,
My family & I (2 adults, 2 children-12 & 8) will be visiting Japan from 17-31 July 2014. Our itinerary so far is as follows:
1) 17Jul: Arrive Narita to Okubo station
2) 18-20Jul: Explore Shinjuku-Harajuku-Shibuya-Ueno-Asakusa-Akihabara, etc
3) 20-24Jul: Osaka, Kobe, Nara, Hiroshima
4) 24-27Jul: Kyoto
5) 27-28Jul: Takayama, Shirakawa, and hopefully an onsen
6) 28-29Jul: Kanazawa
7) 29-30Jul: Togakushi (ninja experience), Matsumoto
8) 30-31Jul: Tokyo (maybe visit Kamakura on the way)
9) 31Jul: Husband flies out of Narita
10) 31Jul-14Aug: Me & my kids will be based mainly in Tokyo (with several day trips to other places like Hakone)
11) 14Aug: Fly out of Narita
Not sure how to determine the cheapest transportation to get through all this, so hopefully any veteran traveler out there may have some suggestions. I realize the last leg of the trip is a bit vague, but my kids want to explore every anime/manga places in Tokyo. But I also figured, they may want to go back to other sites or explore new ones outside of Tokyo. Hopefully, I can have that flexibility. I tried researching on my own, but it’s all so confusing. I would be most grateful for any help anyone can extend. Thank you.