After some great advice from folks on this forum, I'm getting closer to a 14-night itinerary, arriving May 21 in Tokyo, leaving June 4 from Osaka, but need help to make some trade-off decisions. There are four of us - two women in our 60's and two college-age nieces. Right now I have the following:

May 21 - 25 Tokyo

26 - 27 Hakone

28 - 31 Kyoto, with day trip to Nara

1 - to Hiroshima, stop at Himeji on the way

2-3 Hiroshima and Miyajima

4 - to Osaka (or do that night before) and leave from there

But doing that we totally miss Kanazawa, which also sounds really cool. And we don't get a night in Osaka, although I guess that seems like a trade-off I'm ok to make.

I guess I could trade off Hakone for time in Kanazawa, but I think we want to give ourselves at least some chance to see Mt. Fuji and I'm interested in going to an onsen as well, so Hakone seems like a good idea.

Any thoughts/guidance?

Just fyi, this is a first-time visit for most of us so we want to focus on the "must see's" rather than the off-the-beaten-track destinations. We love history, nature, Japanese architecture and design - all the regular sorts of things you'd expect people visiting Japan to be interested in. And with four of us, I'm a little hesitant to do what I might do with just the two of us, which is to pile on the stops even if it's a little exhausting. With four people I need to make it more comfortable and less grueling :-).

thank you so much in advance for your advice!