Late June 2019 Itinerary with questions

OK, just to recap a bit now: This is my daughter's 4th trip, I've been additional times without her, though there are many things I've not done for one reason or another. Yes, I know it is rainy season and hot and humid, you work with what you have and I am not so bothered by some heat and humidity and limited amounts of rain. We also love hydrangeas. We tend to be somewhat fast paced, but not crazy fast paced.

So my thoughts are now:

Pull my daughter out of school a day early so we can do:

Thurs (arrive Japan probably in Tokyo and will take the train to Kyoto) night Kyoto
Fri Kyoto (night Kyoto)
Sat Kyoto (night Kyoto)
Sun (something for the morning hours, go to Osaka by around 13:30 to meet a friend and do some shopping (night Kyoto) I am considering just overnighting in Nara or possibly Osaka as well, since both are closer to Sakurai.
Mon head to Sakurai (night in the Sakurai area)
Tues see more temples in the Sakurai area (night in the area)
Wed more in the Sakurai area (I've never been and there looks to be a nice 11km walk, lots of temples and shrines, and the ninja course with the 48 waterfalls I also found an art forest and a floral garden which are so us.) I am debating renting a car in Sakurai and driving around the area and possibly leaving the car in Mie depending on drop-off fees.
Thurs head from Sakurai to Kiso (night in Kiso)
Fri visit Kiso Valley (night Kiso)
Sat head to Tokyo (to see a friend who only has off Saturdays) night Tokyo
Sun Tokyo (night Tokyo)
Mon Tokyo (night Tokyo)?
Tues Licca Castle (night Tokyo)?
Wed Tokyo (night Tokyo)
Thurs or Friday leave, would be in Tokyo before I leave

I am thinking of renting a car for part of the trip. I'm wondering if we should break up our Tokyo part of the trip by overnighting somewhere either before or after Licca Castle. I'm thinking either Aizu Wakamatsu, Nikko or Nasu onsen, I've also thought about dropping Kiso and doing Ise instead. But here is the rub. Outside of doing ninja training, my daughter loved staying in a cabin/wants to try camping. Despite not actually feeling it at the time, she keeps talking about how much she loved the cabin in Kamikochi. So I'm now wondering does anyone have any cabin renting or camping recommendations? I found this place:
http://www.camp-cabins.com/service/ In Nasu Koen which we could technically drive to and I found someplace in Shizuoka where you stay in a floating dome tent, but I'm open to suggestions or ideas. I also found a "USA" themed campground called Everglades outside Ise. I don't really want to go back to Kamikochi again in case it is buckets of rain. She's enchanted with Kiso because someone we met recommended an AirBnB in Ena which has a cabin feel to it, but I am anxious about AirBnBs and I'm just not sure I want to commit the required 2 nights there. So is the Kiso Valley really that interesting? I've been to Ise and Nikko and enjoyed them both. I've not been to Nasu or Aizu-Wakamatsu so would be interested in hearing about them as well. Also any recommendations of places to stay in the Sakurai/Nabari area are always appreciated.

Thank you in advance

Regarding camping, there is a great article on this website about a summer adventure trip in Gunma, where the author visited a glamping site called Shima Blue that looks amazing.

Shima Blue looks like the sort of place I would want to stay, but I think my daughter wants to try something a little more camping and a little less glamping.

I have now found a bunch of camping locations in Shiga-ken and Mie-ken. One is actually quite close to Iga-Ueno, and the one near Inabe-shi looks pretty lovely. I found one near Akame Falls but it is unclear when it is reopening and what would be available to rent outside a physical space.

So I guess my questions are: Is the Kiso Valley really all that interesting (I've not gone before because it just never looked that appealing, but I know I can be wrong ) or should I skip it? I know I could keep us occupied in the Nara/Shiga/Mie prefecture area, as we could do 3 ninja sights, several temples and possibly Hikone before heading back to Tokyo. I also found a craft place, the art forest, and at least one flower garden. I'm also curious if we should do one long stay in Tokyo or break it up with an overnight someplace else. Shima onsen looks lovely, but Nikko, Nasu and Aizu-Wakamatsu are in the general area of Koriyama.

As of right now, I'd probably buy individual train tickets or maybe get a Tokyo Wide so we can start in Nasu-Shiobara, but I guess it would depend on what we want to do while in Tokyo.

Thanks again! :)

I personally really enjoyed the walk between Magome and Tsumago, and especially loved staying overnight in Tsumago as it meant there were times when the daytrippers weren't there - from early evening until mid-morning. The ryokan stay was lovely as well, and both post-towns have been preserved extraordinarily well. It depends on your own interests, I suppose. It is something different to traditional sightseeing - arrive, look around, head off.

I wonder about your first night. Didn�ft you say in previous posts you want to avoid further travel right after arriving on you intercontinental flight? Maybe you could stay either right in Narita for the first night and use Jetlag next morning to travel to Kyoto? There is even a hotel with a rotenburo right besides Narita Airport (will stay there mid February for my last night before departing back to EU).
(Assuming you arrive and can check in immediately).

If you arrive in the morning I would kind of agree that a few more hours on a train INSTEAD of being out and around is preferable.

Enjoy your trip to Japan!

Our experience - travelling with a younger child - was that arriving in Tokyo (from London - 12 hr flight) and heading straight to Kyoto by train was just fine.

Basically, you're 80% whacked after the flight so we found that the extra hassle of the train to Kyoto was incrementally not that bad. If you accept that it will take a day or two to get fully recharged, you may as well spend that time in the place you're wanting to visit, rather than "wasting" an extra night in transit. On our first couple of days, we took it very easy and accepted that afternoon naps or early nights would be part of our routine if we needed them.

On our last few trips, all with a (now) 9 yr old, we've never stayed in Tokyo at the beginning of the holiday and have always flown into Tokyo and then either flown internally or got the train straight out to our first destination - often a journey of a few hours.

It works well for us.

Hi @LikeBike and @Winter Visitor,

I'm pretty sure at this point I'm just going to have her miss the last day to 2 days of school. One is a full and one is a half and they are there because the last few years our school year has been extended by a week plus due to snow days. (It's why I have no desire to see the snow corridor or snow anywhere in Japan. We don't get snow corridor amounts but we get more than enough snow to not want to see it in Summer.) So we'll either leave NY on Tuesday and arrive on Wednesday, in which case we will spend Wednesday night in Tokyo or see if we can grab a reservation for the Granvia in Kyoto, as it's attached to the station. Even if she is asleep, I can manage with a small wheelie to get her from the shinkansen tracks to the Granvia. Our trips to Kansai where it was a problem, we had too much stuff as well as more transfers/walking and in the case of last trip, we didn't get to our hotel until 22:00! We'll be using the Nozomi for the trip which should also help, since we're spending so much time in Nara/Shiga/Mie that it hardly makes sense to get a 2 week pass and even a 1 week pass might not be worth it. I need to price it out. Even if we take a 18:20 post dinner at the station, we'll get to Kyoto by 20:35, which is much earlier than the late trains which caused a huge issue. Our other option, is she misses part of the day on Tuesday, we fly NY to LAX and take the red eye from LAX to Haneda which would get us in Thurs morning, in which case we would still go right to Kyoto. I'm not really concerned with missing the last 2 days of school, I doubt there is any testing and so she won't be missing anything but seeing her friends.

I know changing hotels can be a pain, but the Granvia to elsewhere in Kyoto should not be so bad, as we will leave our luggage there while sightseeing and making it back to Kyoto Station is not so challenging. Our other hotel will be close to either a subway or Keihan station.

Originally, I was looking at rail passes, which does add on time (both in waiting for a train and the train time) but realized in this case it's not worth it. I'm also hoping to rent a car in Nabari and return it in Yokkaichi to keep drop off costs down and because I can hopefully get the buses to work out of Sakurai for temple viewing. I have to do some more research on renting a car, as that will be a new experience.

I'm looking to stay here:
https://www.aogawa.jp/facilities/ or maybe here: http://www.ok-autocamp.com/price.html

Aogawa looks incredibly lovely but the Autocamp is right near Iga-Ueno.

@Guest, if we go to Kiso, I think we're going to stay in Ena because that is where the AirBnB my daughter wants to stay is located. So we wouldn't really be in Kiso at night. I might actually put that off for another trip since I have found actual camping places closer to where we are going to be.

So everyone, would you do a long stay in Tokyo or should I break it up and where would be interesting if we're going to Koriyama?