15 day trip May/June 2012

Hello there!

Well, that trip looks awesome, and very doable with the rail pass. A couple of points:

1. I see you're coming from London. While the Bullet train down to Hiroshima is very comfortable, the jetlag may make the first few days tough (depends on your constitution!). You could consider staying in Tokyo at the start rather than at the end of your trip to give you a chance to rest up and acclimatise before you move on. This shouldn't affect the overall cost of the travel for your trip.
2. For Mt Koya you'll need to use non-JR services. Please see our blog post for more on getting to Koyasan by train.
3. Yes, the WideView train to Takayama is totally covered by the JR Pass. You may want to reserve seats on it when you arrive in Tokyo however as it is a popular route.
4. For Hakone, unless you are set on travelling by coach, I recommend using the Hakone Free Pass from Odawara. This pass will give you free travel on all the Odakyu operated lines and cablecars around Hakone, and will also give discounted access to many parts of the area. Whichever way you choose to visit the area, be sure to sit on the left side of the bullet train as you travel up from Nagoya for a view of Mt Fuji :).

Hope this helps!