Long time reader and first time poster on this board. I'm a single male traveling to Japan and based a lot of my itinerary on ideas from all of you. So far, this is what I have. I am flying in and out of Kansai airport, arriving on Oct. 21, staying for 11 days. Kyoto Royal $109/night for 5 nights then to Takayama-Sumiyoshi 11,550Y for 1 night, Shirakawago-Kanja 8,000Y for 1 night, Kanazawa(Tokyu Excel) 8,800Y for 1st night and 11,000Y for 2nd night. I notice that they really raise the rate for Saturday night stays. They jacked it up at Kyoto Royal to $176.00 on Saturday. Ouch!! Some of my first and second choices to stay in Takayama and S-go were booked or required two people so I could not stay there. I made the reservations at Japan Guest Houses and they were pretty prompt in replying. That leaves me two more nights to decide where to go from there. Don't know whether I should go to Tokyo as I am not a big city kind of guy. Anyway, I'll probably get a rail pass and activate it when I leave for Takayama. That will leave me more options as to where to go my last two days.

From Takayama, you could go to Kamikochi (very pleasant mountain valley) by bus, then on to Matsumoto (fine castle and other stuff), then train back to Kansai (optionally stop off on the way to walk some of the Nakasendo). You probably wouldn't need a railpass for this itinerary.

In Kyoto, don't neglect the sights to the south: Fushimi Inari Taisha, Uji, Nara (I think these three are more interesting than all but a coule of places in Kyoto).

You've got a nice itinerary. You've chosen some good value lodgings.

Adding Kamikochi and Matsumoto is a good idea but would better to rearrange things in a loop. Kyoto- Kiso Valley- Matsumoto- Kamikochi- Takayama- Shirakawago- Kanazawa- Kyoto. or v.v.

On your itinerary, from Kanazawa you could zip down to Hiroshima and/or Miyajima with a stop in Himeji to visit the magnificent castle there.

Or back to Kansai and visit Nara and Horyuji. Or Koyasan.

someotherguy: I am not familiar with Kamikochi and Matsumoto. I have to do more research. Yes, I definitely will go to Fushimi Inari Shrine as a friend told me it was his favorite place to visit. Maybe I can fit Nara in at the same time. Thanks for the suggestions.

mrwunrfl: That loop you suggested sounds interesting. Maybe I can leave a night or two earlier from Kyoto and fit those places in before going on to Takayama. Koyasan and Miyajima also look good. Others have suggested Arashiyama and Ohara while I'm in Kyoto. Hope I can fit everything in. I'm getting exhausted just thinking about it.

I also will have a travel site to update stories and pictures to friends. I'm a little computer challenged, born before 1960. Now, my digital camera has a usb port. When I connect to whatever computer I'm using, will it recognize it so I can upload pictures? Is it that easy?

yes, it is that easy kawa. after you plug it in you will see a new device in Windows Explorer and you can copy the files from there to your hard drive.

There's a lot of information at the jnto.go.jp site. In particular, the in-depth printable guides at
http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/RTG/PTG/index.html
are excellent. Kamikochi and Matsumoto are in the Nagano guide.