itinery for japan

wife , two daughters age 18 and 20 will fly from Edmonton Canada to japan in 2nd week of may 2020 for a 5 or 6 week stay in japan. we will rent a car in Hokkaido for 1 week as we will visit in ashoro for a few days. any thoughts on where we could base ourselves nearby. we can then fly or bus to the mainland where we will use the 21 day japan railpass at the most economical point. we will spend 1 week in Tokyo, I week in Osaka or Kyoto, 1 week in fukuoka and then we want to fly to Okinawa for 1 week. we can do day trips from our bases and plan to have easy restful days after a couple days of sightseeing. should we also do night trips on buses on some days when changing bases? will the cherry blossom season be finished in Hokkaido in early may. we would appreciate any help as to where to overnight.best travel options, when to start the 21 day railpass.and the best routes to travel. we plan to do Okinawa at the end of our trip. we know this will be the rainy season . this is our first trip to japan so we appreciate all the information we can get. thank you.

Personally I think that the big cities are the worst part of Japan and spending week long stints in them is not ideal. Also day trips to decent places can burn 3 hours plus in travel each day which is boring and expensive.

If I was to plan a 4 - 5 week trip hitting those areas, it would be something like:
Tokyo - 7 days including day trips to Nikko and/pr Kamakura;
Karuizawa a day and night - stay at ryokan;
Matsumoto - 2 days (maybe daytrip to Kamikouchi);
Takayama - 1 night;
Kanazawa - 2 days;
Kyoto - 4 days;
Nara - 2 days;
Osaka - 2 days (actually I would miss Osaka altogether but some people love it);
Hiroshima/Miyajima - 3 days;
Fukuoka - 1 night;
Yufuin/Beppu - 2 nights;
Nagasaki - 2 nights;
Kumamoto - 2 nights;
Okinawa.

But that's just me.

I do agree with PP about not staying only in big cities. For my personal feeling his/her trip sounds a bit too much changing accommodation but that will depend on which places you want to go.
You are staying a long time, I would do maybe half of the trip the gtypical places g and half of it the less typical ones. Eg Tohoku, Shikoku, even Kyushu.

Regarding nightbusses, well theywouldnot be covered by JR pass and you have a long time for your trip, so it wouldnft seem that you need to hurry to get from one place to the next. But it is obviously your decision.

Enjoy planning your trip to Japan!

Ifm with @Likebike in that I wouldnt move bases so often. I understand your desire to visit Hokkaido. I would then do Tokyo for about a week with the day trips to Nikko & Kamakura maybe stopping at Yamagata on the way down. I would then move to Kyoto via a couple of days in Takayama staying in a minshuku. Next would be Hiroshima for about 4 days. I like Fukuoka (My last two trips have included a lot of time there) but itfs really a base to go elsewhere so I would either go to Nagasaki or Kagoshima.
These ideas are just the basics. To my mind itfs still too city heavy. I would probably try to stay in Magome or Tsuwano for a couple of nights to get into the countryside. Also I would definitely want a ryokan stay somewhere. There are so many options.

See I can do a post like this without mentioning Okayama . . . .damn! :)

Cheers, yes I agree it is a lot of moving around, actually what I try to do is to take the scenic route and not travel for more than 2 1/2 hours in a day if possible, and I wont stay in a ryokan for more than 2 days in a row (too much food). Also while I dont like big cities, the regional centres can usually be enjoyed in an afternoon and a full day, so that is pretty much 2 nights for a lot of places. All of that said, I prefer 3 nights in most places as you can wind down a bit, but the only places I have ever enjoyed more than 3 nights in a stretch were Nara and Kyoto, before the latter became a bit overcrowded.

I personally loved our stay in Tokyo and Osaka earlier this year. We went in the summer, it was so hot! We did have a great time doing all of the typical touristy stuff because let's face it, how can you go to Japan and not rent a kimono, right? That's what I thought at least haha. If you want to know all of the other things I did while in Japan you should definitely check out the following link. I also included a 11 day Japan itinerary for Tokyo and Osaka :) https://alovingladytravels.com/2018/10/06/11-day-itinerary-japan/

Suggestions:
Group your city/ town. Eg Kyoto/OsakaNara , Kanazawa/ Takayama etc . JR map is a good start, plus Hyperdia to gauge travel time, distances, train availability.

Decide on which base to use, based on how easy to access trains or bus.
Hotel choices, restaurants. Small towns offer less choices and often close up around 6pm or they have days restaurants are closed.

By doing so, you reduce constantly changing hotels. Note that checkin is usually 3 pm so youfd be stuck with your luggage tho you can leave it at the hotel.
Itfs stressful having to leave a hotel at 10 and wait till 3 pm for the checkin though youfd be busy doing tourist things. However, there may be days youfd want a later start and if you stay several days in the same hotel, this is possible.