16 day trip to Japan
 

Hello,

My wife, I and a couple of our friends are going to spend 16 days in Japan in May of 2010. Please critic our itinerary or provide your suggestions.
Our plans are below:

Day1 Arrival to NRT
Day2 In Tokyo with the guide
Day3 In Tokyo - day trip to Nikko
Day4 In Tokyo with the guide
Day5 Going to Hakone, stay overnight
Day6 Hakone to Nagoya, to Magome, to Tsumago, to Narai, to Matsumoto - overnight
Day 7 Matsumoto to Takayama by Nohi bus
Day 8 Takayama to Ogimachi in Shogawa valley to Kanazawa by Nohi bus
Day 9 Kanazawa
Day 10 Kanazawa to Osaka to Hiroshima to Miyajima
Day 11 Miyajima to Himeji Castle to Kyoto
Day 12 Kyoto
Day 13 Kyoto - Nara
Day 14 Kyoto
Day 15 Kyoto
Day 16 Kyoto to Osaka, dprt

We'd like to stay in ryokans/onsens on Days 5, 7, 8 and 11.

Thank you, we really appreciate your help.

You are trying to do too much on Days 10-11. You will not enjoy Hiroshima or Miyajima with that schedule. I really enjoyed Miyajima in the evenings and the morning, after and before the tourists hordes were there. There's hiking and good food and a peaceful atmosphere!

Just my two cents. There are at least two beautiful ryokans in Miyajima - Momiji-so and Iwaso (I think that's the name)

Careful, the first week or so of May is so called "Golden Week" with a few legal holidays (so people do "bridge" to have a week holiday), extremely busy/expensive time for traffic, trains and hotels, etc.

looks very hard schedule. Especially for Hiroshima part. Could be little slower in that part.

Day 10 is basically a travel day.

If you're to see anything at all of Hiroshima and Miyajima, better to add another night and take from your Kyoto nights.

You might be interested to read my trip report from 2006, when I did a very similar itinerary.

http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...rip-report.cfm

Some said it would be very rushed but for me it was paced about right. Of course you'd like more time in each place but you can always go back right?

You ought to spend a night in Ogimachi, Shirakawago.