"Must Do's"

thanks all for your help have given me some good places to start doing some research on

#3 - Tokyogirl - missed seeing the FAQ's as I went straight to the 'country' option -

#8 - not sure as to what time of the year I would travel, this is all very early stages of planning, though possibly either around March/April or November. Yes, I have been to Kyoto and Nara. In Nara we had a guide to show us around the temple who managed to get us around very quickly, then we walked around some of the back streets and she took us to her home which was over 100 years old for a cup of green tea. These few hours were a great look at old/original Japan and very impressive.