2 Week Itinerary check

Day 1 - Arrive at Narita 4:55, get to hotel about 6:30, explore Shinjuku area
Day 2 - Fuji Q Highland full day
Day 3 - Asakusa and Odaiba itinerary on this site's suggested
Day 4 - Western Tokyo Full day itinerary
Day 5 - Tokyo to Takayama arrive 11�F20am - Asaichi, oldtown, hida no sato, higashiyama walk, yatai kaikan hall, kusakabe folk craft museum, kami sannomachi, eat hoba miso and dinner at either hidatakayama kyoya, maruaki or ajikura tengoku (suggestions?)
Day 6 - breakfast by Ryokan at 7 am, walk around morning market till 9 am, catch 9:39 train to Kanazawa arrive at 12:45,check out Kenrokuen garden and have lunch at Omicho Market, catch 4pm train to Kyoto get there at 6:09pm - with whatever time is available do as much of Arashiyama half day itinerary
Day 7 - Eastern Kyoto Full Day
Day 8 - Arashiyama Full Day (hopefully this is shortened a bit by doing some the arrival Day 6)
Day 9 - North Kyoto Half Day - exact time undetermined for now but leave to Osaka around half day check in to hotel, do a half day of sightseeing, maybe aquarium, mostly there for eating and as our base for the next couple days.
Day 10 - Nara - great buddha, todaiji, deer park, kasuga shrine. Optional isuien garden, yoshikien garden, kofukuji temple
Day 11 - Osaka to Kobe have lunch at Wakkoqu, ride shin kobe ropeway, go back to Osaka and do more activities - I know Osaka is mostly for eating but what are some important things I should do given only about 1 day there. This 1 day is broken down into first day arriving there with half day left, a bit from coming back after Nara, bit from coming back after Kobe.
Day 12 - Back to Tokyo - not sure how to spend the last day yet, but we only have about a half day,need to leave at noon to get to airport 2 hours early for international flight departing at 3:50pm.

So the problems I think I have is the Takayama to Kanazawa connection takes nearly 3 hours, is it worth it to see that garden and have some seafood. My gf thinks its a waste of time but its supposedly arguably the nicest garden in Japan. Also, the Kyoto part of our itinerary is very tight for hardly a bit over 3 days. Whereas our Osaka to Nara Kobe part is very relaxed as these are not as important IMO as the Kyoto section. Please critique my itinerary.

Thanks!
Trevor

A brief glance, my thought is:

2nd Day: 2 days at Hakone and that area are normally more recommended, though I guess it's doable if you start early.

3rd Day: Odaiba is fun! Can't wait to get there again.

4th Day: Western Tokyo... I assume you are referring to mainly Shinjuku, Shibuya, Harajuku area etc. Try start early on Meiji Shingu if you have any plan to shop, shops mostly opened at 10-11am.

5th Day: Looks reasonable or at least it's about the same as mine (though I came from Kanazawa), if you have time you can always go up the trail to old site of Takayama castle (nothing remains there except a few marker of what was at that spot previously)

6th Day: Take the bus Kanazawa, I'm not sure but I think it will be shorter time and you will be able to see the views on bus. The bus will pass through Shirakawa-go. Kanazawa was one of the many surprises I got from my last trip, the foods are great, one of the spots that I will go back, don't forget to check the Souvenirs shops at JR station, they have quite a numbers of Japanese foods/snacks/sweets from Kanazawa.

Day8 : You should be fine if you plan exactly where you want to go, eg. Daikakuji is a a bit far off to the north of station and other places.

Rest looks fine, except the Kobe trip that I have no idea of, haven't been there yet.

Don't overlook Osaka! It's a great city!

If you are there for half a day, I would go to the Aquarium and then walk Shinsaibashi/Dotonbori, but lots of stuff can be done :)
For the two evenings in Osaka, you can spend one in the aforementioned area and the other in Umeda. Shinsekai would also work in the evening. Throw in the castle if you have time.
I wouldn't worry much about your Kyoto days, I think it's pretty well worked out, so enjoy!

This is the OP, I just registered an account.

Hmm, we're wondering if we finish Fuji Q Land early (need to research how long it takes people), we might try and do something else so possibly a quick visit to Hakone national park might be doable.

6th day - Yea, we actually originally had Shirakawa-Go as part of our itinerary but I opted out because I figured the Gassho-Zukuri house can be seen at Hida No Sato in Takayama, and other than looking at the house there's nothing else to do and the bus is not included in the JR pass. Google maps isn't able to find out the time for the bus travel, is there another source I can use to find out how long a bus from Takayama - Shirakawa Go - Kanazawa would take?

Yes, further research into Osaka lead me to add Osaka castle. We thought about the aquarium but I read that while it's one of the world's largest, it's not one of the world's best. Here in Toronto, we just recently built a Ripley's Believe it or not aquarium which had pretty much everything I saw in the pics of the Osaka one, so we'll skip that. We'll definitely spend the 2 evenings wandering around umeda, namba, dotonbori and shinsekai.

I was told to register ID's at the airport in order to get access to local public wifi's. Any comments on how specifically to do this?

Thanks!

You can spend some time at Haneda or Narita Town. Pleasant residential and pleasant historical towns respectively.

Kyoto, your arashiyama reaching at 6pm.. Temples and shrines there are closed. Probably just dine + bamboo + souvenir shopping
Which isn't bad, but missing Tenryuji is sad. Rather do Gion +Yasaka Shrine + Potoncho and arashiyama from Daitokuji or Golden pavilion. Train/bus available

Osaka is mostly known for food. and snacks. Not that Kyoto/Kanzawa/Tokyo doesn't have good food. It is famed for different cuisine.
Attractions include "hunting for the rainbow pocky" and "shopping at Umeda/Osaka station" and "visiting Sumiyoshi"
But really, Osaka just has some old town and old street areas and food. You can find such stuff in Ueno and other parts of Tokyo, just not as common. I would rather just visit and revisit Domtombori to eat.

If you are into relax, calm, zen, mediate
Then Kyoto is great
If you are the "always moving doing" and peace is not equal to calm Kyoto garden isn't for you
Kenrokuen @ Kanazawa is better
Kanazawa has cheap and good food

Probably cause it is near much countryside. Kyoto is more expensive and the food isn't always better (still good though)

Kanazawa is surrounded by onsen, but your time there doesnt permit it. Sadly.

Kobe can be missed.

If you don't me asking, what country/city are you from. Help me get an idea of what is too much like your country so I can strike it of. No point traveling just to go home.

Haneda and Narita as in around the 2 airports? They aren't very close to Fuji Q Land...
Must be a different place you are referring to.

I won't be missing tenryuji, it's in the Arashiyama Full day schedule :)

Yea, I read about all the local specialty foods at Kanazawa and I'm excited to try. There was also the Komatsu Yasuke restaurant (booked months in advance unfortunately), but apparently he's an 83 year old man that the top Tokyo sushi chefs go to study from him and eat there.

I am really only going to Kobe to eat at Wakkoqu, maybe take the ropeway up and down, and come back to Osaka for more food.

I'm coming from Toronto, Canada, so relatively big city I guess. Probably nothing compared to Tokyo though haha.

Fuji Q takes a fair amount of time. Expect to be in the park for around 8 hours at least if you want to ride at least once all the major rides. But don't worry much about not seeing much of the area. The views of Mt. Fuji from the park itself are awesome :)

The only thing that occurs to me if you want to see more of the area (Kawaguchiko mainly, as Hakone is in the opposite side of Mt.Fuji) is get a very early train, get to kawaguchiko a few hours before the park opens, and get to the park at opening time since sunrise in Japan happens quite early.

As in on your last day, you could spend time around the airport instead of Tokyo. Haneda is quaint trendy residential district.

One day in Osaka... Follow mehttp://www.soleilrouge.org/une-journee-entiere-a-osaka

As in on your last day, you could spend time around the airport instead of Tokyo. Haneda is quaint trendy residential district.

The isolated island that Haneda Airport is located on is a commercial zone, not a quaint and trendy residential district. Maybe you're confusing it with parts of Ota Ward next door?