We're looking for suggestions for a stopover either after we leave Hakone or around the Kanazawa area. We have two additional nights to play with due to a change in our plans.
Our current itinerary looks like this:
Tokyo - 6
Hakone - 2
Takayama - 3
Kanazawa - 3
Kyoto - 7
We will be traveling late October to mid November. We enjoy hiking, gardens/parks, culture, and food. We will be traveling by train and bus.
Thanks!

There are actually several possibilities - the obvious one is to also see the Fuji 5 Lakes area. A Fuji Hakone Pass might save you some good money in that case. Or you could take a day and see Kamakura+Enoshima. There is a good pass for there as well, or if you skip the Fuji 5 Lakes, there is one for Hakone+Kamamura. Another option is to take 1-2 days and see the Izu Peninsula. The Tanzawa-Oyama area is another possibility, as well as the back side of Mt Fuji at Fujinomiya. Hamamatsu is almost always ignored by most tourists, and has a few places to see also. And since you are moving towards Takayama, there is always Nagoya and Inuyama. Especially the latter - Inuyama Castle is small and quaint, and one of the original 12 surviving castles (all the rest are reconstructed fakes), but the real treat is Meiji Mura - Japan's most fantastic open air museum - and amazing to see all the rescued buildings from the latter half of the 19th century.

BTW if you like gardens, you will actually love Tokyo - there are over a dozen of them, and unlike overrun places like the Sensoji Temple, they are not swarming with tourist mobs. Inside Meiji Shrine there is also the Meiji Gyoen Garden, again, mostly ignored in the tourist stampede to the shrine.

Thank you! Lots to think about.

Unazuki Onsen and the scenic train and the gorge, not far from Kanazawa but closer to Toyama, described here : https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e7575.html

Or, from Kanazawa take a train to Wakura Onsen on Noto peninsula.

This train: https://www.kanazawastation.com/the-...-wakura-onsen/

Nikko and Lake Chuzenji might be of interest.

Thank you. All these ideas look appealing!