[ChisaChi]

I dunno, I spent so much time in a tour bus going around China and it was just horrible to sleep in! We want to save money but I'm not sure I want to spend a night on a bus... unless they're somehow quite comfortable? I've heard they take a few times longer than the bullet trains.

I've heard about the hectic peak times on the trains; we're going to be avoiding those times as much as possible, especially while we're still figuring out how the heck to buy tickets!

@samokan: Do you have any recommendations for other places to visit? Particularly places we can do as day trips from one of those major cities. We're still going through details and haven't decided on all the places we want to go. As it stands currently we're doing 5 days in Tokyo, one day in Nagano, one day in Hakone, 4 days in Kyoto, 4 days in Osaka then back up to Tokyo again to fly out.

Thanks for the help so far everyone! And for such quick response.