Leaving for Japan in 10 days! 3 week itinerary, advice appreciated

[moist]

Heya people!

3 friends and I are leaving for Japan in a week and a bit. We're backpacking around the country for ~3 weeks from Nov 22nd to Dec 13th.

Heres a brief outline of each area we're visiting:

Day
1 - 3 : Tokyo
4: Yokohama
5-7: Osaka
8-9: Kyoto
10: Hiroshima
11: Fukuoka
12: (Travel from Fukuoka to Osaka)
13: Twilight Express (Osaka to Sapporo)
14-16: Sapporo
17-18: Sendai
19-22: Tokyo

We've got some activities planned but we're mostly expecting to just explore each area we visit. With that in mind, we want to have a list of places to check out just in case exploring gets dull. We've never been before, so I was wondering if anyone could give some suggestions for activities/sight seeing locations for any of the cities I've listed. Whether you've been or not just post up what you think might be worth checking out. I know theres plenty of resources out there for this sort of question but I like to ask around anyway

So essentially, put your self in our shoes and tell me what you would do!

Thanks

[GoNative]

Any reason to come all the way up to Hokkaido? It's a long way to come just to spend a day or so in Sapporo! Sapporo is a pretty cool city (actually very bloody cold in December) but not sure if it's worth it for such a short time.

[princessmarisa]

I'd move it around to add more time around Hiroshima and squeeze a trip to miyajima in there and Shukkeien gardens.
I spent 3days in the Hiroshima region and it wasn't nearly enough I would easily have given up one day of Tokyo, mainly because you can do about 3parts of Tokyo in one day due to the fact most places of interest are only a few minutes on a train away, but things near Hiroshima are more than just1-2stops away.
Anything particully you are going to Sendai for? It is a long train journey there and back, same thing for Fukuoka really, you don't want to spend all your time on trains If i remember right i didn't go to Fukuoka at all because of how long and how many trains it would take.

I guess your flights are too late to change but when I go I fly into one airport (osaka) and out of another (tokyo) so I don't have to double back on myself when travelling about.

[Firebird]

Originally Posted by GoNative

Any reason to come all the way up to Hokkaido? It's a long way to come just to spend a day or so in Sapporo! Sapporo is a pretty cool city (actually very bloody cold in December) but not sure if it's worth it for such a short time.

I second that. Sapporo is really nice but a bit far just for 1 day. You gonna spend most time in the train. I´d also rather spend a second day in Hiroshima to see Miyajima (the floating gate). Sendai is definetly worth the time on the train to see Matsushima! It was one of my personal top 3 in Japan.
Fukuoka is nice as well, and the journey is not so long as to sapporo.