11 days in Japan

A 7 day pass would pay off. And yes, you can use the Pass to go to NIkko. An overnight there would also be better to see more and be less hectic than a very early wake up and day trip.

Within Tokyo, there are subway passes, such as on:

http://www.tokyometro.jp/en/ticket/value/travel/index.html#anc03

But for 2 days you'd need to ride quite a bit to recoup the costs. So maybe it's worth it or not; depends on how much you are exploring Tokyo. Another alternative in a JR Tokunai Pass for 750 yen per day, you can ride the JR Yamanote Line which goes to many popular tourist places. You can see Shirikawa-go in just a couple of hours, tops.
You can get from Takayama to Kyoto in about 3 hours 20 minutes. Hopefully for your Day 8 you leave in the morning, and for Day 10 leave in the evening - even with that amount of time, it's only seeing a small fraction of what Kyoto has to offer. And if you can fit in at least 1/2 a day to see Nara, so much the better. After the temples and shrines in Kyoto close around 5 PM, you can zip over to Osaka to see it in the evening. Dotonbori at night is a must see place:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COJ_MeXbeow

Yes, the JR Pass covers the Narita Express from Tokyo to the airport. As for your travel pace, only you can really decide if it is too hectic. It wouldn't be for me though.

Hello there,

Yes the JR Pass will work very well for your itinerary and you'll save lots! It does indeed look a little busy but I don't see anything that worries me or involves a huge amount of travel time.

A bit of advice, try to switch Nikko - Hakone around. It's much faster to travel directly from Hakone (Odawara station) to Takayama than from Tokyo or Nikko. Taling about Nikko, it works great both as a day trip from Tokyo or a single nights stay. You can try a local onsen if you stay the night!

The JR Pass also covers travel back to Narita Airport, so you are all settled!

Hope this helps and great itinerary btw!
Daniel

Toraneko & Daniel-san

Really appreciate your advise.

I do have a few question for the Hakone trip:

1) does Yumoto station provide luggage storage service?

2) or should I store my luggage at Odawara (because the following day we are taking JR to Takayama)

1.) Nearly every station in Japan has a good collection of Coin Lockers. To be sure, I checked the station map of G=Yumoto and there are indeed coin lockers.

2.) Odawara also works if you would prefer to store you luggage there :)