7 day Itinerary

My boyfriend and I are going to Japan together this April 2018. The last 3 weeks I have been doing my best to try and look at the different cities and things to do, but I'm still a little lost. This is a lifetime opportunity! Traveling on a budget.

So I booked all the hotels but I'm having trouble understanding the transportation part, also if the itinerary makes sense. Travel dates are from April 3th - 12th.

Day 1 (April 4th) Get to Narita Airport at 2:00 pm

- Got a hotel for the night there since we will have been traveling many hours.
Narita Getaway Hotel

Day 2 (April 5th) Off to Osaka
- Had to book room there rather than Kyoto due to room price.
Nest Hotel Osaka Shinsaibashi

- This day I think we can explore Osaka and go to eat

Day 3 (April 6th)

- Travel from Osaka to Kyoto
- Explore Kyoto
- Go out to eat dinner

Day 4 (April 7th)

- Kyoto and Maybe another city for 1/2 day?
- Maybe go to eat in Kobe

Day 5 - 8 (April 8th - 11th)
- Leave Osaka to Tokyo

- Staying in Hotel Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku
-Explore Tokyo
- Maybe go to Baseball game
- Go Shopping
- Night life

Day 9 (April 12th)
Haneda International 9:10 AM
- Fly Back to U.S.

Does anyone recommend JR pass? Pocket WiFi??? Any helpful info is much appreciated!

I would get the 7 day Jr pass and activate it for the day you go to Osaka.
Instead of going to Kobe I would day trip to Nara or just stay in Kyoto. If it rains while you are in Osaka, the aquarium is well worth a visit.
There is a free phone app http://www.ntt-bp.net/jcfw/en.html which lets you connect to free wifi spots & I found that there were plenty of them in the major cities.

1.5 days in Kyoto isn't really enough to see the basics. I would omit Kobe.

Three days would be too short to explore both Osaka City and Kyoto City.

Unless you have a special reason to be in Tokyo during the daytime on Day 5 (Sunday, April 8), it sounds better to leave Osaka or Kyoto in the afternoon | evening or to stay there for another night.

Major tourists spots in Kansai Region may be crowded on the weekend from the evening of Day 3 (Friday, April 6) to the night of Day 5 (Sunday, April 8).
Especially when cherry blossoms fully bloom, popular cherry viewing sites may attract many visitors.

Maybe you on Day 2 (Thursday, April 5), which will be a normal weekday, can enjoy the cherry blossom viewing event hosted by Japan Mint at its headquarter site in Osaka City.
This yearly event is held for 7 days; currently the schedule for spring 2018 is not yet announced.
https://www.mint.go.jp/eng/enjoy-eng/sakura-eng/toorinuke-eng

As your transportation mode,
you might hope to have domestic flights at discount fares (about 8000 yen per person per way)
from Narita (NRT) either to Osaka Itami (ITM) in the evening of Day 1 or to Kansai (KIX) in the late morning of Day 2
and back from Osaka Itami (ITM) to Tokyo Haneda (HND) on Day 5.

- ANA Experience JAPAN Fare
https://www.ana.co.jp/en/us/promotions/share/experience_jp/

Staying in Hotel Sunroute Plaza Shinjuku

Sunroute hotel chain has two hotels around (JR) Shinjuku Station.
When you take a taxi, you indicate "Sunroute Plaza" clearly.

Narita Getaway Hotel

The name of this hotel seems to be Narita Gateway Hotel, not "Gataway" (!!) hotel.

Many good suggestions have been done already so I would add one point.

In your itinerary you stay the first night at Narita, and this night might be the peak day of cherry blossoms in Tokyo. Therefore if you take the Japan Rail Pass, you might better move to Tokyo for the first night which is not so tiring if you take NEX train. Meguro river and Chidorigafuchi are famous cherry blossom spots where you can enjoy the "light up". These are within Tokyo, but one of the best spots in Japan.

Currently Narita Airport [NRT] and Kansai Airport [KIX] are not connected directly by ANA or JAL.
Three low cost carriers now operate the air route between these two airports.

Let me delete "(about 8000 yen per person per way) " and also add "or the afternoon" after "the late morning" in my previous response.

While you can save your expense by a discount-fare or LCC flight from NRT,
according to the current timetables, flights to ITM are only after around 16:50 and flights to KIX are only after around 9:40 available from NRT;
unless you catch a flight in the evening of Day 1, you highly likely can get to Osaka City earlier by Narita Express + Shinkansen.
(If you fly into HND on Day 1, you can take a JAL or ANA flight to ITM in the early morning of Day 2. )

When you plan to leave Narita by JR Narita Express in the morning of Day2, please note that only the earliest 3 trains (departing before 9:10) make a stop at Narita Station; in order to take a later Narita Express train, you have to get back from your Narita hotel to the airport.
(Narita Station is outside Narita Airport; Narita Gateway Hotel seems to be offering courtesy buses to this station).

Compared to Tokyo Station, Shinagawa Station is much simpler, therefore more convenient for a transfer from Narita Express to Tokaido Shinkansen.
Narita Express trains leaving Narita Airport are mostly two-destination trains, which are divided at Tokyo Station into the part to skip Shinagawa Station and the part to make a stop three.
I recommend you on Day 1 reserve your Narita Express train seats for your ride on Day2, so that you can get on a correct train car.

Hi!

I'm in the US as well, on the East Coast.

It's counterintuitive, but the best way to adjust to Japanese time is to force yourself to stay awake until at least 20:00 or even better 21:00. Maybe you will go to bed by 21:00 and get up at 6 or 7, but I found that great for touring. :)

I agree with @Frog1954, and think you should think about traveling into Tokyo the day you arrive. Your Narita hotel is not near any train lines, so you're going to need to take a shuttle back and forth to Narita airport just to get anywhere. It's not so hard to do the trip into Tokyo as long as you don't pick someplace hard to get to. Tokyo during sakura is really quite lovely.

I don't know who your US carrier is and whether their phones work in Japan but depending on who your carrier the cost of renting WiFi might be more than the data you use on the trip. I have Project Fi, and after spending 2 weeks in Japan in June 2017 and June 2016, I can say, my phone bill for my time in Japan was much less than what I would have spent on pocket WiFi. I used Google Maps to find some restaurants I wanted to try and called home to talk to my spouse and some other family members as well as using a few apps to chat with friends and text friends.

Good luck!

Such great responses everyone is very helpful! I will look into changing the hotel to a more convenient location or going strait to Okasa. Great suggestions from everyone!!!!!