my itinerary kansai and hiroshima

I'm intending to visit Osaka,Kyoto,Himeji,Nara,Kyoto,Hiroshima,Miyajimi between 20 dec-3 jan (14 days) during my honeymoon!

I will be arriving at Kansai airport. There after, i will travel by shinkansen to Hiroshima (where i would stay abt 3 nights with an ex home stay family).

I considered getting a 7 day pass, but thought it might not be worth it as I would only be travelling along kansai region n Hiroshima.

This is what I may do :
Osaka--Himeji(side trip)--Hiroshima/Miyajima--Kobe(Arima onsen)--Kyoto(nara side trip)--Osaka.

1)Is it more feasible to get a 4 day JR West pass(20,000 yen) to travel from Osaka--Hiroshima (himeji, miyajima side trips) I would stay at Hiroshima for 3 nights.4th day I would travel from Hiroshima to Kobe(Arima Onsen)

Thereafter, get the JR Kansai pass (4 days= 6000 yen) to travel between kyoto,nara,osaka.

Altogether, I would have 8 days instead of 7 days if I buy the usual JR pass.

2)Is dec20-3jan (Christmas, new Year) a bad time to tour Japan? I'm afraid many shops will be closed and prices would be exhorbitant.

3)Between Arima Onsen and kinosaki onsen, which is a better recommendation?

If you go to http://www.hyperdia.com/cgi-english/hyperWeb.cgi
you can work out all the fares and figure it out to best suit your itinerary.

1) 4 Days JR west pass pays off if you travel Kansai airport - Himeji - Hirosima & Miyajima - Kobe by Shinkansen. I advise you to check other transportation in Kyoto, Osaka and Nara since any JR pass is not valid for Kyoto subway or bus, Osaka subway, or Nara bus.

2) Gererally speaking, no. Though Temples and shrines might be crowded, you will find many stores open even during holiday week.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2276.html

We used a JR West 4 days Sanyo pass last fall. We went straight from Kansai airport to Hiroshima and on the last day to Hiroshima to Kobe. We also used it to go to Miyajima. we got a lot of mileage out of it as our hotel was in Shijo, a nice little town in the suburbs of Hiroshima and we also went to Fukuoka for 1 day.By the way that pass is good for the Nozomi shinkansen.