We will be traveling from Kawaguchiko Station to Kyoto during our visit to Japan (5-6 hours of travel time). Our plan is to leave our Lake Kawaguchiko ryokan at 11am. If we head straight to Kyoto, we will arrive around 5pm. Most sights will have closed by then, and we are staying in a capsule hotel that evening.

It might make sense to stop somewhere along the way during the day, and arrive to our capsule hotel later at night. Any reccomendations for a place to stop on the way to Kyoto?

If we do travel straight to Kyoto and arrive around 5 or 6pm, are there things to do/see at night?

Hikone.

Hakone is beautiful. Wonderful outdoor sculpture museum.

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e7000.html

JNTO made some changes to their Practical Travel Guides webpage. Here is the link for the region. You can save the pdf and view it just in adobe reader. The map on page 3 is of interest.
https://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/pdf/viewe...-502.pdf&la=en

The map shows how easy it is to get from JR Hikone station to the castle. There is a tourist info center just outside the station entrance, can't miss it. Also, there is a tourist loop bus to a few attractions.

Thank you for the suggestions!

@mrwunrfl - now that I have all my hotels booked and my itinerary finalized, I am finalizing transportation options. You had given some really great advice a few months ago. I am trying to document the routes I will be taking and making a final trip plan. I will be posting it here, and if you have the time, I would very much appreciate you taking a look at it again. I tried incorporating all your input, so hopefully I have it right this time!

ok. IIRC, you were going from Nikko to Kawaguchiko. and considering a regional railpass that I didn't know. and your best route from K-ko was to go to Shin-Yokohama...

russ_in_LA wrote about Hikone in his TR.