Kyoto -Takayama/Kanazawa - Nagano -Tokyo

Hi all.
We will be visiting Japan for the second time.
This time we want to visit Kyoto, Osaka, and Tokyo, but take a bit of a different route from Kyoto back to Tokyo.
As I would also like to visit the snowmonkeys near Nagano I came up with these 3 options:

Kyoto-Kanazawa 2:04
Kanazawa-Nagano 4:13
Nagano-Tokyo 1:40

Kyoto-Kanazawa 3:10
Kanazawa-Tokyo 4:03

Kyoto-Takayama 3:10
Takayama-Nagano 5:00
Nagano-Tokyo 1:40

As the time difference between going straight to Nagano from Kyoto, or visiting Kanazawa underway, is only 40 minutes, I think the Kyoto-Kanazawa-Nagano-Tokyo option sounds like the best plan.

Anyone have any opinions on which route to take and how long to stay in each city between Kyoto and Tokyo? I was thinking 1 night in Kanazawa and 2 nights in Nagano, so we could walk around in Nagano when we arrvive, see the snowmonkeys the day after and go to Tokyo on the 3rd day.

Note that Takayama-Nagano can be done in 3 hours if you take the bus between Takayama and Matsumoto.

Note also that it takes two hours to get from Nagano City to the snow monkeys. Instead, I recommend to base yourself for at least one night in the nice hot spring town of Shibu Onsen, which is much closer to the monkeys:
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e6029.html