Help needed with Itinerary

Help needed with Itinerary for 1st timers to Japan to visit
Tokyo with suggested day trips;
Hakone,
Kyoto with respected day trips (Osaka and Nara),
Kiso Valley via Nagoya to see Magome, Tsumago, and do the Nakasendo trail;
Himeji,
Hiroshima/Miyajima,
Kanazawa,
Takayama, Shirakawa-go,
Okuhida & Kamikochi and then back to Tokyo for flight to US or Osaka for flight back to US .

Please advise also of
1) best mode of transportation between cities and
2) how many nights in each city if we have about 15-16 days.

Thanks and looking forward to your replies..

Fairly obvious that train would be the best way to move around.

I dont think though that you have enough time to do you wanna do. With four day min in Tokyo, four days min in Kyoto and two days for Hiroshima. Five days left for all the other stuff. Especially the hiking days will be a huge push.

what about this?

Day 1: Tokyo

Day 2: Tokyo

Day 3 : daytrip to Hakone

Day 4: daytrip to Nikko

Day 5 head to Nagoya from Tokyo (night in Nagoya)

Day 6 : visit Kiso Valley--> from Nagoya and do Magome and Tsumago + walk the Nakasendo trail, if time permits and head to Kyoto for night in Kyoto

Day 7 : Kyoto

Day 8 : Kyoto

Day 9 -Head early to Himeji from Kyoto--visit Himeji and then head to Hiroshima/Miyajima and stay overnight in H/M

Day 10: Visit H/M and then head to Kanazawa - night in Kanazawa

Day 11 : Kanazawa and night there

Day 12: Leave Kanazawa to Takayama and night in Takayama

Day 13 : from Takayama drop by Shirakawa-go for few hours by Nohi bus and then head to Okuhida for night in Okuhida

Day 14 : Okuhida

Day 15 : Daytrip to Kamikochi and then head back to Tokyo for night in Tokyo

Day 16 : Head back to US from Tokyo

Please share feedback on the above itinerary and re-arrange with your suggestions.

Also, please advise when changing cities if we should take bus or train to be the most efficient with time.

Thanks so much everyone and looking forward to your reply.

I agree that it's going to be a very rushed schedule to see all of that. Japan is not a huge country, but that's still a lot of travel days and hotel moves.

I would probably skip Nagano and Kiso Valley. You could start in Tokyo, Head to Takayama, then to Kanazawa via Shirakawago, and then head to Kyoto area where you could visit Himeji as a daytrip, and then finally to Hiroshima. Fly out of Osaka if you can.

4-5 days in Tokyo, 2 in Takayama, 2 in Kanazawa, 5 in Kyoto, 2 in Hiroshima.

If you must do Kiso Valley and Nagano, then knock a day each off Tokyo and Kyoto, but I think it's too much.