North Honshu Itinerary

In September we arrive Sapporo for a few days sightseeing around that area,Otaro,Hakodate etc. and then we plan to ferry to maybe Akita and use a rental car to see Kakunodate , Morioka,Sanriku Kaigan and a loop around the north back to Akita (no drop off fee)
Then we thought we could travel down to Niigata for another rental car to see Kitakata,Aizu,Matsushima and a loop like that including Tsuruoka and back to Niigata to travel on south towards Tokyo.
Is this a good itenerary to see the major attractions of N.Honshu?
Any suggestions are most welcome - thanks.

The best route in Hokkaido would be to start in Sapporo, make a side trip to Otaru and then travel down to Hakodate. From Hakodate there are no ferries to Akita, so I recommend to take the train instead.

As for your plans to rent a car, I am afraid you might be underestimating the distances. I personally think you should look into drop off fees, as they can be worth the huge distances you would have to back track. The Sanriku Kaigan, for example, is far away from Akita. As is Matsushima from Niigata. I think you better consider drop off fees or rent more cars for shorter periods.

As a matter of fact, drop off fees could even come cheaper than train tickets for the trips in between, especially if you travel in a group.

I must admit we have found sometimes drop off fees can be less than two people taking transport to the same places, trying to save the fee.
As we have about 10 days in N.Honshu it is proving very difficult to work out a route to see the major sights in an efficient way. Even in Shikoku and Kyushu a route seemed easy to find connecting the sights worth seeing cohesively.
We do hope someone can help with our planning for this area. Basically we don't mind renting cars , and we can't take on long hikes due to being in our 60's. Otherwise we prefer "old Japan" to cities and theme parks.
Any suggestions for a workable route and itinerary of N.Honshu from top to bottom over 10 days would be very helpfull.Thanks.

Is Toyota rental cars a good alternative to Tocoo.com now...?