Comments on final itinerary please.

the three nights in Takayama.One day will be getting there,so it only leaves two days.

Of those,one for a walk around the town and a visit to the few sights there,and one for a day trip (Shirakawago as you suggested,for example) is fine for me.Its not the greatest place in Japan but its a nice example of a well restored smaller city.

Certainly you will find plenty of tourists there.As you will in most of those places...Japanese tourists if not foreigners (main temples of Kyoto,Kamakura,Nara etc.)Don't count on seeing snow,though it is certainly possible in December.

The first time I went to Takayama I had scheduled two days there, but it turned out that half a day was quite sufficient time to see and do everything I wanted to. I would cut it down to one day, and spend the extra two days based in Tokyo, maybe with a side trip to Kamakura as suggested above.

Mmmmm...I am wondering if we should miss out Takayama altogether and concentrate places closer to Tokyo such as Hakone and Nikko. I will sit down with my husband tonight and try to resolve my dilemma. There is so much to see and I may have been trying to cram in too much. I definitely think it seems wiser to travel from Kyoto to Takayama if we do decide to travel to this area.

If we do leave Takayama out we will be flying into Osaka, Koyasan, Hiroshima, Miyajima, Kyoto and then Tokyo with day trips from both probably Nara, Nikko, Hakone and Kamakura. Perhaps this might be more manageable and still leave us with a wonderful holiday.

If you want to leave out the Alps region completely and reallocate the days there to somewhere else,that makes sense too.

I think both Takayama and Matsumoto are worth the trip.But there is plenty to see and do in those other places too.You can't do everything in 2 weeks...

BTW Nikko is well worth an overnight stay,rather than just a day trip...if you have the time.

Its great early morning and in the evening,when the day trippers have gone home.

If you go to Nikko, spend at least one night there, maybe even two. The inner part of Nikko - known as Oku-Nikko - is surrounded by tall mountains, and very beautiful. There might even be snow up there.

And as luca says, Nikko is particularly enjoyable in the early morning, before the hordes of day-trippers have arrived.

There are also some great walks in Nikko, including very atmospheric ones following rows of cedar trees that formed part of the old pilgrimage route. In fact, the rows of cedar trees leading to Nikko are considered the longest tree-lined avenue in the world, and there are some sections of them that are excellent for walking.

We've now decided to travel to Osaka 1 night, Koyasan 1 night, Kyoto 4 nights (day trip to Nara), Hiroshima and Miyajima 1-2 nights (via Himeji), Nikko 1-2 nights and Tokyo (with possible day trips to Hakone and Kamakura). We have 17 nights in total so will work out where to spend our additional nights. Thank you so much for all of your help. I think that we will enjoy our trip more as a result of all of your feedback as I was really trying to achieve too much. We love nature and so the addition of time at Nikko will be welcome and I note that it is best to stay there to have some time when there are less people around.

Ok,you're welcome.

You can't really go wrong with adding your extra nights to Tokyo and Kyoto.

So much to see in those two cities,and loads of possible day trips as an alternative.

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