Advice on first time 24 day itinerary in Sept

Hi all,

My girlfriend and I will be visiting Japan for our first time in September for 24 days as part of a year travelling around Asia, we are on a budget so accommodation will be a mix of hostels, minshukus and ryokans for the odd splurge.

After a lot of research we've come up with the following itinerary and would love to hear your thoughts on how it can be improved or even just reassurance we're on the right track.

There are also a few things we're currently unsure of, so help with these points would be amazing:
- We have 3 days and nights in the Fuji area, would it be better to spend two nights in Hakone or Kawaguchiko?
- Is an evening and most of a day enough time to see the main sights in Matsumoto?
- Will we need to book any train reservations in advance or should we be okay with unreserved seating?
- We did the calculations and none of the JR Passes suit our route and timelines but we've found the JR West Rail Pass which will definitely save us some money on the latter part of the trip (25th-29th). Are there any other passes we should be considering?

9th Sept - Saturday:
- Flight arriving at 21:10 from HK - Sleep in Tokyo

10th Sept - Sunday:
- Tokyo 1 - Sleep in Tokyo

11th Sept - Monday:
- Tokyo 2 - Sleep in Tokyo

12th Sept - Tuesday:
- Nikko Day Trip - Sleep in Tokyo

13th Sept - Wednesday:
- Tokyo 3 - Sleep in Tokyo

14th Sept - Thursday:
- Tokyo 4 - Sleep in Tokyo

15th Sept - Friday:
- Kamakura - Morning train to Kamakura & Evening train to Hakone - Sleep in Hakone

16th Sept - Saturday:
- Hakone Course/Loop - Sleep in Hakone

17th Sept - Sunday:
- Fuji Five Lakes - Sleep in Kawaguchiko

18th Sept - Monday:
- Fuji Five Lakes - Evening train to Matsumoto - Sleep in Matsumoto

19th Sept - Tuesday:
- Matsumoto - Afternoon train to Nagiso - Sleep in Tsumago

20th Sept - Wednesday:
- Magome-Tsumago Trail - Evening train to Kyoto - Sleep in Kyoto

21st Sept - Thursday:
- Kyoto 1 - Sleep in Kyoto

22nd Sept - Friday:
- Kyoto 2 - Sleep in Kyoto

23rd Sept - Saturday:
- Kyoto 3 - Sleep in Kyoto

24th Sept - Sunday:
- Kyoto 4 - Sleep in Kyoto

25th Sept - Monday:
- Himeji AM & Hiroshima PM - Sleep in Hiroshima

26th Sept - Tuesday:
- Miyajima Day Trip - Sleep in Hiroshima

27th Sept - Wednesday:
- Hiroshima - Afternoon Train to Osaka - Sleep in Oaska

28th Sept - Thursday:
- Osaka 1 - Sleep in Osaka

29th Sept - Friday:
- Nara Day Trip - Sleep in Osaka

30th Sept - Saturday:
- Osaka 2 - Sleep in Osaka

1st Oct - Sunday:
- Koyasan - Morning Train/Bus to Koyasan - Sleep in Koyasan (Temple)

2nd Oct - Monday:
- Koyasan - Evening Train/Bus back to Osaka - Sleep in Osaka

3rd Oct - Tuesday:
- Osaka AM + Flight PM - Travel to airport - Sleep in Kuala Lumpar


Any help and advice would be hugely appreciated :)
Thanks in advance

Try business hotel chains and capsule hotels. They are rather economical.

Hakone has more attractions, but if you want to see Mt Fuji, two nights for Kawaguchiko would be better. Clear skies are usually at sunrise.

I think Matsumoto is just for the castle. Try a trip to Kamikochi and Norikura from there.

Unreserved should be OK, unless during the Silver Week. Although in this year there are just three-day holidays in the middle of September...
https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?country=26

Nikko and Okunikko are comparable to Hiroshima and Miyajima. Think of at least a night there.

Kamakura and Enoshima are marginally OK for one full day.

Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka nights appear rather long. I prefer something like this with an addition of Kinosaki Onsen:

-Tokyo(4N)-Nikko(2N)-Kamakura(1N)-Hakone(1N)-Kawaguchiko(1N)-Matsumoto(1N)-Kamikochi(1N)-Tsumago(1N)-Kyoto(4N)-Kinosaki(1N)-Himeji(1N)-Miyajima(1N)-Hiroshima(1N)-Nara(1N)-Koyasan(1N)-Osaka(2N)-

Nikko and Okunikko are comparable to Hiroshima and Miyajima. Think of at least a night there.

I tottalty agree with this, many people think that there is nothing around Tokyo but Nikko is worth to visit and better to stay at least one night.

My gut feeling is that given how much there is to see in Japan, you are allocating too many days for Tokyo, Kyoto and around Mt Fuji.

I personally would have shaved at least one day off each and use those three days to include somewhere else.

If you do want to spend that many days in Tokyo, I would agree with the recommendation that you use one of those days to go up to Nikko.

With regards to Kyoto, it is trully magnificent and not to be missed, BUT do bear in mind that its very easy to get 'templed out' (especially if you are also going to be doing Nara).

Hakone/Fuji Five Lakes: Mt Fuji is very fickle and not always clearly visible, especially during the day. Moreover, the Five Lakes area is very nice, but not sure that on a relatively short trip I'd want to waste a day or two doing it, especially when I can get plenty of nice views of Fuji-san in Hakone and even on the train ride to Hakone from Tokyo.

One thing I would HIGHLY recommend you try to get into your visit is checking out a 'matsuri' or Japanese festival. Big or small, they are all fantastic and a great insight into Japanese culture. There are over 100,000 of them a year, so they are easy to catch - just make sure you always ask at your hotel/tourist office if there are any going on nearby!

For a sample of what you might be able to catch, please check out my blog (There will be other matsuri reports being put up in the coming days)
https://myjapantravels.wordpress.com/

Here are a couple of websites listing some of the matsuri on in September:
http://www.japanvisitor.com/japanese-festivals/festival-september
http://www.japan-talk.com/jt/new/matsuri-list