First Japan trip - weekend in Kyoto or Tokyo?

Planning my trip to Japan after years of it being my long term life goal. I'm going with my girlfriend and we're planning two weeks in April 2015 to experience the cherry blossoms.
We'd arrive on Sunday in Tokyo. We had planned:
13th-17th (Mon-Fri) in Tokyo (including Hakone, Nikko and maybe Nagano)
18th-20th (Sat-Mon) in Kyoto
21st-22nd (Tue-Wed) in Osaka (including Himeji)
23rd-25th (Thu-Sat) back in Tokyo for few more days

How would members rate this itinerary? What would you recommend to change and also, is it better to spend the whole weekend in Kyoto as I planned, or would it be better spent in Tokyo? My concern is a must-see attractions closed on Sundays in Kyoto and likewise attractions closed during weekdays in Tokyo. Don't want to miss out anything important :)

Keep in mind that the cherry blossom season may be over during that time-frame.

High grounds may have the sakura in full bloom though.

2014 Report: http://www.japan-guide.com/blog/sakura14/

There is no such thing as a "must-see".

I just returned from Japan after spending 7 days (3 in Kyoto and 4 in Tokyo).

I suggest you stay in Tokyo at least 4 full days so you can get a taste of the city and it's people. There are so many things you can do. Everywhere you go you will find something amazing. The must sees depend on what you like. For me, going to the fish market wasn't a must, but it was going to Tokyo Tower.

In Kyoto, you have temples and shrines everywhere, so if some are closed, others will be open. In fact, I think all of the shinto shrines are open 24/7.

Japan is a very beautiful country. I regret i didn�Lt stayed more time...

Hope this helps.

Thanks everyone. I don't think we will be able to move our trip to an earlier date so we may miss the best days. But hopefully Hakone will have something for us.

My must-see list at the moment is very broad, and as well as visiting shrines, department stores, fish market, we also want to see the modern side of Japan (Tokyo Tower, Sky Tree, Sega JoyPolis)

I guess the thing I fear most is missing out on some interesting things happening in Tokyo Parks during weekends. But we will have whole Saturday and half Sunday in Tokyo before we leave. Hopefully this will be the first trip of many.

I'd keep it with the Kyoto days. You have already given Tokyo some of your days so you are not missing out

This past April (2014) we arrived in Osaka on March 29 and left on April 11. I took the 10 year averages of the cherry blossoms to decide on the dates and it worked perfectly. The cherry blossoms were at peak. Your schedule is too late except for the highest parts of Yoshino.

Ok thanks for that. As we are unable to reschedule we will take that detour if if don't the sakura bloom elsewhere. It's confusing how some websites state the dates.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/asia/japan/10724571/Jap...

Yoshino is there early to late April, but I suspect the best part will be mid April. As this would have to happen on the Kyoto-Osaka leg of our trip, it would be 18-23 April, which may be too late.

However, I've just booked a hotel for a day in Hakone on 17th, right next to Lake Kawaguchi. Hopefully we will see it there.

If you want to see a modern side of Tokyo maybe make time to visit Odaiba if you haven't already planned to.

It's my favorite shopping/walking around spot in Tokyo. It's also where the Olympics are going to be centered around in 2020.

The Fuji tv building, giant gundam, toyota showroom, and plenty of shopping are some of the main things to do in the area.

Last time I was there, the Toyota showroom was actually doing drifting demonstrations which was really interesting to watch. I think people were able to sign up to try it but I had to catch a Shinkansen so I couldn't really investigate much. Don't know if they do it all the time but it's still an interesting place to visit.

Thanks will add those to our list :)

We're now thinking about going earlier. We could push the whole schedule back by 4 weeks so we'd go 14th March and stay until 29th of March, With Tokyo on both ends of the trip, 20th March in Hakone, 21st to 25th in Kyoto, Osaka.

Would that be a good plan?

Ok, after looking at the records I think going mid-march may mean we leave before the cherry blossoms season. So we'll stick to our April itinerary. We'll go to Yoshino between 18th and 22nd, failing that we'll try to go to Osaka Mint garden, depending on the period it is open. Hopefully upper parts of Yoshino will still be in bloom, and maybe we'll find sakura in Tokyo in the first days of the trip.

Is there a place in Tokyo with different varieties of trees with different bloom times?