Change in plans!

Hi SiuYel,

Sorry for the somewhat late replay, I got stuck in train traffic myself yesterday (unfortunately not in Japan).

Going to your itinerary, I think the best way to find out is to make a new list of ticket prices, so here we go:

Haneda - Tokyo ¥ 620
Tokyo Nikko ¥ 10,860
Tokyo -> Mount Fuji, travel by JR to Otsuki ¥ 2,860, from there you can take the non-JR Fujikyu line 1,100Yen
Otsuki - Kanazawa ¥ 16,790
Kanazawa - Kyoto ¥ 6,710
Kyoto - Hiroshima ¥ 10,790
Hiroshima - Miyajima ¥ 570
Miyajima - Hiroshima ¥ 570
Hiroshima - Osaka ¥ 10,520
Osaka - Kansai AIrport ¥ 1,160

For a total of ¥ 61,190 the 21-day JR Pass is ¥ 57,700, saving you ¥ 3,490. Of course it also comes with the added convenience that you don't have to buy tickets are time you travel.

The trip from Fuji to Kanazawa is somewhat long and complicated. It involves several transfers and takes about 5 hours. To avoid this, you could switch Tokyo and Kanazawa around, going from Fuji to Kyoto (via Tokyo) is a much easier trip and you can reach Kanazawa directly by Thunderbird express from Kyoto. This won't make a lot of difference in total travel time but you can take out a lot of transfers and spread the total amount of travel you do over more days.

I hope this helps,
Daniel :)

Thanks for your advice Daniel, I've adopted your suggestions and our itinerary is looking like this...

9-Jul Arrive at Haneda
10-Jul TOKYO
11-Jul TOKYO (Day trip to Nikko)
12-Jul TOKYO
13-Jul Tokyo to Mt Fuji
14-Jul MT FUJI
15-Jul Mt Fuji to Kyoto
16-Jul KYOTO
17-Jul KYOTO (Mt Koya overnight stay)
18-Jul KYOTO
19-Jul Kyoto to Kanazawa
20-Jul KANAZAWA
21-Jul KANAZAWA (day trip to Takayama/Shirakawago)
22-Jul Kanazawa to Miyajima (overnight in Miyajima)
23-Jul Miyajima to Osaka via Hiroshima
24-Jul OSAKA
25-Jul OSAKA (day trip to Nara)
26-Jul Depart Osaka

There are two 5 hour travel days but we are ok with that as there aren't many train changes. If you have any other suggestions to our itinerary please comment!

We are hopeful that this is the last change we'll make and we can order our rail passes from you guys soon.

Thank you again for your help!

Hi Again!

Yes I think this looks much better!
Five hours of train travel may sound a lot but time always flies when you are on the move in Japan. There is a lot to see and the trains are very comfortable. Of course you can bring a book or handheld device to keep you occupied or write a small journal.

Have a wonderful trip!
-Daniel