Reserving Seats during Golden Week

Hi there,

Looks like you already made a detailed with many great places. To answer your questions:
1.) Seat reservations can only be made once you are in Japan and have exchanged the rail-pass. Once you arrive at Narita you can activate your JR-Pass there and make all the reservation you would like / or buy the tickets.

2.) I have traveled on several days during golden week in the past with a friend and we where always able to get seats, a couple of times we could not sit beside each other but at those times the other Japanese passengers where so kind the swap seats with us, so we could. We did with same day reservations, since you can make most of your reservations at least one day in advance I don't think it will prove to be a problem.
In the rare case that the seats reserved seats have sold out you can still take the train with a un-reserved seat, these go on a first come first seat basis, so be sure to come to the station early and line up. You can ask the JR-Staff in advance where a non reserved car will stop so you know where to stand.

3.) Here is a little break down of ticket prices,
Narita Airport --> Takayama ¥ 16,900
Kanazawa --> Nara ¥ 7,820
Nara --> Kyoto ¥ 540
Kyoto --> Narita Airport ¥ 15,930

For a total of ¥ 41,190 this would not cover the cost of the 14-Day JR Pass (¥ 45,100) so it may be better to buy the tickets as you go with the current itinerary.

Hope this helps,
Daniel

Thanks Daniel! That gives me great relief. Dawn