Where to spend a couple days after Tokyo

I have 7.5 days in Tokyo next April (Arrive 16:00 on the 4th and leave 17:00 on the 12th). I have 4-5 days in Tokyo planned out, including a day trip to Kamakura. I was thinking maybe I should spend a couple of nights outside of Tokyo to get a little bit of a different flavor. I've gone a little nuts reading the travel guides, though, and I'm finding too many places that seem interesting. I would be mainly interested in seeing some historic districts, castles and some less populated landscape. And of course with it being April, if there's a prime cherry blossom spot, that would be a selling point.

These are the ones that looked good to me:

1. Kanazawa
2. Matsumoto, Nagano, Ueda
3. Nagoya and Inuyama castles on way to Takayama (long trek for 1-2 nights?)
4. Aizu Wakamatsu
5. Stay in Tokyo and add Hakone(Odawara Caste) and Sawara (or Kawagoe) to itenerary.

Any of those look better than others? Something entirely different? Never been to any of these places, so they would all be new.

Thank you.

I guess you have already visited Kyoto. Otherwise that would be the first choice of most people.

If you decide to stay in Tokyo, I would advise not to go to Kawagoe but to Sawara (and nearby Katori jinja).

Enjoy your trip to Japan!

I have not been to Kyoto as this is my first trip to Japan. I was warned and worried about the crowds in Kyoto during blossom season and figured maybe I could see temples in Kamakura instead.

We will be going to Japan around that time too, and are expecting crowds everywhere as it is one of the popular times to be in Japan with sakura blooming et al.

Kanazawa is lovely, but it's quite far from Tokyo. How about Nikko + Aizu Wakamatsu instead? In Nikko, you will have the mountain landscape, onsen and the world famous Toshogu Shrine. Nikko is easily accessed from Asakusa Station and there are package deals like 1-2 day return trip.

Last time we combined Nikko with Kinugawa, where we visited the wacky Edo Nikkomura and Tobu World Square: https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3875.html

If you are an anime fan, also try Studio Ghibli Museum in Mitaka.

I guess the other question no one is asking is how much do you want to spend?

I really like Kyoto, but adding it in for 2 nights is going to increase your train costs by ~26,000 to ~29,000 yen depending on if you pay for all trains out of pocket or get a rail pass. There are overnight buses and special Kodama shinkansen tickets but if you're only going for 2 days spending 4 hours on the train or doing an overnight bus might not be worth it and you're still looking at paying 16,000-20,000 roundtrip in that case.

This is your trip, and only you know how much you've budgeted and how long you are willing to spend getting somewhere. Kanazawa is lovely and I really like Nagano and Ueda.

Getting to Hakone will be much cheaper than most of the rest of your list.

I'm OK with spending up to the cost of a 7-day JR pass if it makes sense.