3 week vacation in Japan, need some help

Hello everyone^^ I will be going with a friend to Japan from july 9th~ to around July 30th, so around 3 weeks. We have been working on a plan for Japan and have come up with something like this:
arrive in Osaka, stay there 4 days
Then Kyoto 5 days
then Tokyo for 11 days
then travel back to Osaka for 1 last day and leave from there. In Osaka we are planning to take a trip and go see Himeji. In Kyoto we plan to go for a day trip to Nara. Ok so i have a couple questions i would like to ask you guys.

For a day trip at an onsen, would it be better near tokyo, or kyoto/osaka?

Making Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo are main cities good? should we look into replacing or adding another place?

Is the day distrubution of the places good enough to see most things?

Any must see places near these cities i listed that you guys recommend?

Thanks sorry for long post^^;

It all depends a lot on yourself. I, for one, would go bananas and bored after 15 days in enormous cities like Tokyo and Osaka but that might precisely be your cup of o-cha.

I would cut down the stay in Tokyo and insert a trip to the countryside. It is a completely different experience, and I always enjoy it more than the big cities as the Japan trip becomes more of an adventure when not everything is displayed in romaji and you have to rely more on Japanese and contacts with Japanese. If this makes sense (and I don't blame you it it doesn't) have a look around at this website for recommendations a little away from the beaten track.
How about Kinosaki? Well accessible from Kyoto and on the other side of Japan and plenty of onsen. The sea on that side of Japan is just awesome and it should be possible to include that as a daytrip from Kinosaki.

Thanks a lot for the responses. I will look into what you guys said, thank you!

Eloy,

It does depend on your interests and how you like to travel. If you are the kind of traveler that likes to squeeze in as much as possible, that is one trip. If you are the kind of traveler that likes to set limits so as to enjoy the experience more, that is another.

For starters, you may wish to view your trip in terms of regions as appose to cities. Osaka, Nara, Kobe, Kyoto are all in the Kinki (Kansai) region.

Because you can easily travel between these cities perhaps set the number of days to coincide with what you wish to see. My very first trip to Osaka was about two weeks long. That included a day trip to Nara, a day trip to Kobe, a day trip to Himeji and three days in Kyoto.

When planning, consider going to Hikone, Nagoya, or detour up to the Takayama and Shirakawago. You could spend 11 days in Tokyo and from Tokyo, consider going to Kamakura, Hakone, a trip to Fujisan and Nikko.

Check out the other post �g3 weeks Japan... when do what?�h and get a good book or two.

Enjoy your trip
Tenshi

Wow, 3 week you can traverse the entire Japan. We did three separate trips over three years but only one region at a time. If you use Osaka as your Kansai base, you may want to include Miyajima/Hiroshima on you day trip list. It's only 2.5 hours on Shinkansen. As for your Tokyo days, Hakone/Gora, Matsumoto/Karuizawa are worth considering. You may also want to take a couple days and stay at Kanazawa (2.5hrs from Osaka; 4hrs from Tokyo) and explore the city on the Japan Sea coast. Have fun!