Visiting Nokogiri on arrival in Narita

We are arriving in Narita on 2nd April and planning to head south first to Ise and work our way back to meet the family in Tokyo 10 days later.
I have always wanted to visit Nogokiri and the famous statues, and wondered if it would be reasonable to fit it in at that time.
Our flight arrives at about 08.30 and we will have travelled far and be tired (we are 'mature' travellers), so would this be a possible plan?
Train to Nokogiri and stay locally there for two nights before moving on southwards.
My questions are:
How much can we enjoy Nokogiri without hiking?
Does anyone have suggestions of accommodation with easy access both from Narita and to ropeway to the holy places?
Do we then have to go back to Tokyo to continue down to Nagoya where we'll pick up a hire car and drive slowly back up to Tokyo? No ferries south from the Chiba Peninsula?

I seem to see on the map a possible ferry from Nokogiri to Kurihama Flower park. Does anyone know about this possibility please?
From there we should be able to get to a train which will take us to Nagoya.

Do you mean Nokogiri-Yama (Mt. Nokogiri) in Chiba prefecture?

http://www.mt-nokogiri.co.jp/pc/pdf/19brochure_us.pdf

http://www.mt-nokogiri.co.jp/pc/pdf/areamap_us.pdf

There is the rope way, so you would not have to hike all the way up, but once you get up there, it will be a walk around the temple grounds to view the big statues, if I remember right. So I don�ft know how comfortable you�fd feel doing that right after your arrival.

Although you can get the ropeway up, it really just goes to the lookout point. After that, to get to the statues, there is still a lot of walking and lots and lots of stairs! Seriously - lots and lots and lots of stairs. You'll think there can't possible be any more, and yet... there are. This is not something to do after a long plane trip. Just take the train or ferry from Tokyo after you've had a rest. Also, my memory of the town is that it's pretty small and not very exciting. I don't think it's a place you'd want to stay.

ah thank you - that was what I was worried about. Last time we flew long distance (to Portugal) I had trouble with my ankles for the first little while. Climbing many many stairs would probably be just too difficult. So good to have clear answers. Thank you