Hope you have the good experience at JP. I really wait your review

Sounds like a great trip. About the no-seafood, would that include fish broth too? It's possible a lot of their seasonings have it, with or without the seafood meat in it.

I think your various adjusted itineraries will mean you aren't in Takayama for the spring festival but I feel the opposite way to Sue about trying to be there for the festival:

We went to Takayama for the autumn festival, which I understand is very similar to the spring one, mirror events, one for each of the two shrines...

Yes it was crowded, but not unpleasantly so at all... then again we're from London!

Most of the time, walking around during the day, there were some other tourists around but never what I could consider many and much much much much less crowded than, say, Kyoto's Gion and Higashiyama districts on a regular day -- that's what I call packed!

The only time there were proper crowds (and quite added to the atmosphere) was when the shrines were lit up and moving through town in the evening for the procession and everyone lined the roads to watch. Not uncomfortable at all and worth seeing...

Even meandering through the morning market, the crowds were not unpleasant.

I'm sure at other times, it's vastly emptier, but we really loved being there to see the festival.

Some data:
http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/...014&country=26
You might stack in crowds in your last week, in such Japanese top national holiday season.

http://www.sakurazensen.com/sakurazensen-zu.html
Opening (left) and ending (right) of Hanami season (average: 30 years?). Note we regard the full bloom as the end, essentially. Soon (1 day or so) after the full bloom, Sakura losts its beauty with patchy green in pink (Ha-zakura).

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%A1%...96.8B.E6.97.A5
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_d...erisiers#Dates
The maximum fluctuations in the Sakura dates. No English version, currently.

Over all, an earlier departure might end in a better journey. Or, put your leg to the North (Tohoku/Hokkaido) region. It appears your itinerary gets to be somewhat conservative by the inputs, likey to occur by the averaging of others.