Help with Japan itinerary
 

Hi,
Just spent a couple of hours going through the site and its great - both in terms of the responses and the wealth of information and I was wondering if I could get some comments on my proposed itinerary as well. We're planning on being in Japan from the 18th of March to the 3rd of April and while the first bit is a structured tour, we're planning on doing the following from the 27th to the 2nd. We were wondering if this would be too much travel especially on the Kyoto-Shirakawago-Mt Fuji trail so any comments would be greatly appreciated. Also while you have recommended places to stay for a few of the destinations, I was wondering if recommendations existed for the others. As we're a bunch of students doing a reasonably long trip - budget places would be nice.
Thanks a lot,
Alok.

Day 1 (27th) - Himeji - head early from Osaka to Himeji - see castle and by evening head to Hiroshima - night in Hiroshima
Day 2 (28th) - see Hiroshima, head to Kyoto in the evening, spend night in Kyoto
Day 3 (29th) - See Kyoto, night in Kyoto
Day 4 (30th) - Kyoto - morning leave for Shirakawago, night there
Day 5 (31st) - See the place and afternoon leave for Lake at Mt Fuji
Day 6 (1st) - Spend day at Mt Fuji and leave in the evening for Tokyo
Day 7 (2nd) - Day in Tokyo
Day 8 (3rd) - flight at noon from Narita

Looks good, but day 5 is a bit of a trek.

What do you mean by "Lake at Mt Fuji"? I think you mean Lake Ashi but you might mean one of the "Fuji Five Lakes".

Breaking up the trip from Hiroshima to Shirakawago with a stop in Kyoto is a good idea.

You could use a 7-day JR Pass for this itinerary.

You could spend a second night, the 30th, in Kyoto or stay in Takayama or in Kanazawa (if the Kanazawa- S-go bus is running). Or stay overnight in Takayama or Gero on the 31st. Then go to Fuji-san the next day.

On day 7 you could leave in the afternoon and use the last day of your JR Pass to take you to Narita Airport. Stay overnight at one of the airport hotels.

mrwunrfl,
Thanks for the insights. I think breaking the journey would be a great idea. Also since we're there from the 18th we're planning on taking a 14 day JR rail pass anyways so that should work. On Mt Fuji - sorry for not including this earlier but yes I meant one of the Fuji Five lakes - would you recommend a specific one?
Thanks again,
Alok

Mt.Fuji & Fuji Five Lakes (PDF:204KB)

Meant to say: no I don't know much about FFL. There is a guide on the following page:
http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/RTG/PTG/index.html

and click on:
Mt.Fuji & Fuji Five Lakes (PDF:204KB)