[inthemix]

Hey everyone. First time poster...

I just booked our flights for next May, we can hardly wait.

Neither my wife, nor myself have been to Japan as of yet, but I have been wanting to go ever since I can remember.

What will make this trip for me, is that my old high school exchange studen- Satoshi is going to meet up with us while we are in Tokyo. He lives in Soka City, so it's a bit of a haul- but I figure we will hang out quite a bit.

So, to the point of my post. I want to run my itenerary by you guys to see what you think. We want to see a lot, but not get crazy tired too fast.

We like to see/do just about everything, so we are going for the mix of old and new. We love to eat so any recommendations there are always good.

So here goes:

W 11- Day 0 - depart
R 12-Day 1- arrive Narita, hang out in Shinjuku area- stay Shinjuku
F 13-Day 2- Ginza, Asakusa, kabuki- stay Shinjuku
S 14-Day 3- day trip to Nikko- stay Shinjuku
U 15-Day 4- Tokyo TBD- stay Shinjuku
M 16-Day 5- Guided tour of Fuji/Hakone by bus- Stay Ryokan Hakone
T 17-Day 6- hang out in Hakone- depart for Kyoto, stay in Kyoto
W 18-Day 7- hang out in Kyoto, half day trip to Nara- stay Kyoto
R 19-Day 8-Kyoto TBD, stay in Kyoto
F 20-Day 9-Half day in Kyoto, travel to Osaka- stay in Osaka
S 21-Day 10-Travel to Koyasan- stay in Temple
U 22-Day 11-Leave Koyasan- stay in Osaka
M 23-Day 12-Travel from Osaka to Kanazawa- stay in Kanazawa
T 24-Day 13-Tour Kanazawa- travel to Takayama- stay Takayama
W 25-Day 14-Tour Takayama- travel to Matsumoto- stay Matsumoto
R 26-Day 15-Tour Matsumoto- travel to Nagano, stay at Shibu Onsen
F 27-Day 16- See the monekys at hotspring, depart for Tokyo
S 28-Day 17-More tokyo- stay near Tokyo Station
U 29-Day 18-More tokyo- stay near Tokyo Station
M 30-Day 19- Any last minute Tokyo stops, depart Narita in the afternoon


General questions:

1. Should I (or rather, would you) axe one of the days at the end in TOkyo and put it somewhere else in our itenerary?

2. We are stopping in Matusmoto because the Himeji Castle is under renovations. Do you recommend Himeji instead- even with the construction?

3. Does the travel sound ok? I don't think there will be any super long travel days, except for the Koyasan connections. Please correct me if I am wrong.

4. Any other suggestsions or changes welcome!

Thanks

Andy