Hi I need your help in planning a whirl tour of southern Japan for 10 days. I've been to Sendai, Nikko, Tokyo, Kyoto on previous trips and now is time to explore further south.

Day 1 ... Okasa, spend the night here
Day 2 ... from Osaka take a day trip to Nara and back to Osaka in the evening, spend the night.
Day 3 ...activate 7 days JR rail. Heading to Matsuyama. Explore Dogo hotspring. Spending the night in Okayama.
Day 4 . to Hiroshima ...check-in hotel then explore the garden and castle, park and take a trip to visit Miyajima island. I was here in the island a few years ago. This will be a second visit.
Day 5 . to Hakata ..check-in..explore the city.
Day 6 ...day trip to Beppu
day 7 ...day trip to Kagoshimachuo, stop by to visit Kumamoto castle.
Day 8 - Hakata to Kyoto
day 9 - day trip to Takayama. I was here before (a few years back) should I revisit ?
day 10 - heading to the KIX for fly home.

Anything else should I include or delete from the itinerary. Thank you all for your suggestion and insight.

Day 3 - not that's too much. Spend the night in Matsuyama. Hotel Patio Dogo would be a good choice.

You can take a hydrofoil from Matsuyama to Hiroshima. Nice ride but not covered by the JR Pass (would be $40, I think).

Day 4 - Hiroshima castle is totally optional. You should have taken your time with Matsuyama-jo yesterday. Not sure what garden you are referring to but you might read up on the garden next to Kumamoto-jo and compare.

day 7 - Kumamoto-jo, hai! Also, maybe the garden there. Do you really have time, for what? in Kagoshima. Going to Sakurajima?

day 8 - what, you aren't going to stop at Himeji-jo?

day 9 - you should be able to answer this yourself.

mrwunrfl: Thank you for your input. The purpose to go to Kagoshimachuo ...is to ride the new shinkansen line ... Tsubame. I think these shinkansens are fascinating.
The travel time from Hakata to Kagoshima-chuo is a bit more than 2 hrs. That's why I think I have time to make a stop in Kumamoto.

Yes, of course, I'll stop by Himeji, a bakery located somewhere on the way from the train station and the castle was one of the highlights during my last trip.

Figure 4.5 hours from Osaka to Matsuyama and then 4 hours from there to Hiroshima by JR. If you left Osaka at 6AM you could get to Matsuyama at 10:05.

Lyndie recently wrote on this forum about how she enjoyed her visit to Kagoshima and had food and lodging suggestions, if you are interested. I would recommend stopping in Kumamoto first.

If you skip goint to Takayama on day 9 then you could use your JR Pass on day 2 to get to/from Nara.

You could go to Kagoshima on day 7 and overnight in Kumamoto. Then take the local train via Aso to Beppu, stop for a while and continue on to Hakata.

mrwunrfl:
Thank you for your input.