Yeah, I was worried about that Himeji/Hiroshima/Miyajima one
How about Hiroshima/Miyajima as a day trip, with Himeji on another day? Personally I'd really rather not go to Hiroshima on this trip because of the travel involved (although we do have a rail pass so can go by shinkansen, I think), but one of my group is really keen to see it. I'm gonna try and talk them out of it and put in a day at Koya-san instead >_>
You have a point, MMM, I did get really sick of temples in China. Especially travelling for hours to one that to me looked the same as all the others! We'll probably be mainly hitting up the main one in Nara, a day or half a day looking at the ones around Kyoto, and a few on Koya-san (although I'm more interested in the forest and cemeteries for photos, really). Hopefully that shouldn't be too much to overload us with temples... although that's all in the space of a few days, so we'll see.
samurai007, thanks for the info! It's your photos that make me want to see Koya-san, heheh. Good to know it doesn't involve much hiking, and that its still as beautiful in the winter. Dunno if I'll be able to convince my friends with the length of the trip, but I'll make it there someday for sure
This is the itinerary we have at the moment, although we'll have to make some changes in bits..
1 - arrive in Kansai in the morning, explore Osaka
2 - Osaka, Osaka Aquarium
3 - Day trip to Himeji, Hiroshima, Miyajima <- (looks like I'll have to change this one)
4 - Move on to Kyoto (or go up to Koyasan if I can slot it in)
5 - Day trip to Nara, afternoon/night in Kyoto
6 - Temples around Kyoto
7 - Koka, afternoon/night in Kyoto
8 - train to Tokyo, afternoon/night exploring Tokyo
9 - day trip to Karuizawa for skiing
10 - Tokyo
11- Tokyo
12- Tokyo
13 - Tokyo
14 - Hakone, spending night in ryokan
15 - Fly out from Narita in the afternoon
... looking at this again, we really are going to be spending a lot of time travelling >_>