Hi - here's my itinerary - I would appreciate anyone's thoughts. One concern is whether I should make the visit to Mt. Fuji for a stay in a ryokan for two night? Is there anything else I should try to fit in?

May 17-21 Kyoto / Nara
May 21-22 Hiroshima / Miyajima
May 22-24 Kanazawa
May 24-25 Takayama
May 25-27 Fujisan
May 27-31 Tokyo

while in tokyo, squeeze in a day trip to nikko.

I'd limit Fuji to a day trip from Tokyo, and spend a day in Shirakawa-go, south of Takayama. It is a world heritage village of grass roofed houses. You can spend the night there. Very different feel than the other stops on your trip. We live in Kanazawa, by the way. It is a very nice city! Kim

That's a great trip. It's 15 days, of course, so if you got a 2-week JR pass you would have to decide whether to have it cover May 17-30 or 18-31.

thanks for everyone's thoughts. I am now definitely making a stop in Shirakawa, knocking out mt. fuji (replacing it with a night in a ryokan in hakone) then going to Tokyo a day earlier. There are so many day trips I can do from Tokyo (Nikko, Kamajura, Hotyuji), that I figure it can't hurt to tack on an extra day. So excited....