Japan - Koyasan to NRT - overnight in Osaka or Tokyo?

At the end of our 13-day trip including Tokyo, Hakone, Osaka and Kyoto
we will have a 6:30PM departure from NRT, after spending one night in Koyasan. My initial thought would be to spend one night in Tokyo so we would be closer to NRT, but now I'm considering spending one night in Osaka.
I'm trying to balance what makes sense, both financially for the train tickets and time wise, as well as try to make it as comfortable as possible for my mother - she's now walking with a cane, recovering with a knee injury.
The trip from Koyasan to Osaka seems to involve bus, cable car, train and subway, so I thought she could use a break and overnight in a hotel before our flight. BTW, her flights will be over 22h.

Any advice on where to overnight?

I'd stay in Kyoto or Osaka. The flight is late enough in the day that you will have no problem getting to NRT from either in plenty of time. Figure arrival at NRT around 3:00 - 3:30, an hour for the N'Ex from Tokyo Station and 3 +/- hours from Kyoto or Shin-Osaka to Tokyo Station and you don't even have to leave until 10:00 or 11:00 am. Since most hotels don't require check-out until 11:00 am, your mother can spend that last morning relaxing in the hotel rather than several hours hanging around the airport.

I'd prefer Kyoto over Osaka as it is one less connection since the shinkansen stops at Shin-Osaka Station rather than downtown and you would have to get out there. Kyoto Station is a main shinkansen stop. Plus, you would be in Kyoto that last day and night which is reason enough. :p

I'd stay in Kyoto or Osaka. The flight is late enough in the day that you will have no problem getting to NRT from either in plenty of time. Figure arrival at NRT around 3:00 - 3:30, an hour for the N'Ex from Tokyo Station and 3 +/- hours from Kyoto or Shin-Osaka to Tokyo Station and you don't even have to leave until 10:00 or 11:00 am. Since most hotels don't require check-out until 11:00 am, your mother can spend that last morning relaxing in the hotel rather than several hours hanging around the airport.

I'd prefer Kyoto over Osaka as it is one less connection since the shinkansen stops at Shin-Osaka Station rather than downtown and you would have to get out there. Kyoto Station is a main shinkansen stop. Plus, you would be in Kyoto that last day and night which is reason enough. :p

+1, but I bet Hailstorm will probably recommend that you go to Tokyo and spend the night clubbing with your mom in Roppongi.

+1, but I bet Hailstorm will probably recommend that you go to Tokyo and spend the night clubbing with your mom in Roppongi.

No, that's too rough for her mother. They should spend the night with some geisha in Asakusa. ^

I'd stay in Kyoto or Osaka. The flight is late enough in the day that you will have no problem getting to NRT from either in plenty of time. Figure arrival at NRT around 3:00 - 3:30, an hour for the N'Ex from Tokyo Station and 3 +/- hours from Kyoto or Shin-Osaka to Tokyo Station and you don't even have to leave until 10:00 or 11:00 am. Since most hotels don't require check-out until 11:00 am, your mother can spend that last morning relaxing in the hotel rather than several hours hanging around the airport.

I'd prefer Kyoto over Osaka as it is one less connection since the shinkansen stops at Shin-Osaka Station rather than downtown and you would have to get out there. Kyoto Station is a main shinkansen stop. Plus, you would be in Kyoto that last day and night which is reason enough. :p
That sounds like a good plan, my only concern would be having all of our luggage with us at this point vs. having the luggage sent to the Tokyo hotel and then taking the limo bus to NRT.

No, that's too rough for her mother. They should spend the night with some geisha in Asakusa. ^
Actually, I thought of spending the last night at the Grand Hyatt. If my mother takes as much as one sip of sake she might end up clubbing in Roppongi if I don't keep an eye on her:p

That sounds like a good plan, my only concern would be having all of our luggage with us at this point vs. having the luggage sent to the Tokyo hotel and then taking the limo bus to NRT.
Have your luggage sent to NRT.

Have your luggage sent to NRT.

Yes, Japanese luggage delivery services are amazing. I hesitated to use one the first time some Japanese friends suggested it, but I've been a convinced user ever since my luggage traveled safely from the convenience store near their home in suburban Kanagawa-ken to my hotel in Kyoto.

I suggest sending the heavy luggage to Narita (the hotel you stay in before Koya-san can arrange this) and just taking a small bag to Koya-san and wherever you stop the night before your return.

All hotels are familiar with delivery services, and all the nationwide delivery services have counters at NRT.

Thank you, jib71 and ksandness. I had read about delivery from the airport, but not to the airport, but it makes sense.

We'll be flying AA (unless all stars align and JAL opens up ;-) so, it seems like there are a few options for terminal 2.
According to the NRT website, there's GPA, ABC, QL Liner (I'm assuming ANA and JAL are only if you're flying with them).
Any experience or recommendation for any of these?

http://www.narita-airport.jp/en/guide/service/list/svc_05.html

Thank you, jib71 and ksandness. I had read about delivery from the airport, but not to the airport, but it makes sense.

We'll be flying AA (unless all stars align and JAL opens up ;-) so, it seems like there are a few options for terminal 2.
According to the NRT website, there's GPA, ABC, QL Liner (I'm assuming ANA and JAL are only if you're flying with them).
Any experience or recommendation for any of these?

http://www.narita-airport.jp/en/guide/service/list/svc_05.html

They're all located in the same area, and in my mind they are all interchangeable, as I've noticed no discernible difference in service with any of them.

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9B176 Safari/7534.48.3)

How about stay one more night at Osaka and fly Itami - Narita?

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9B176 Safari/7534.48.3)

How about stay one more night at Osaka and fly Itami - Narita?
We are flying on AA award and I could not find availability for the 3 of us for the Itami-Narita flight. Thanks for the suggestion though.

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9B176 Safari/7534.48.3)

How about stay one more night at Osaka and fly Itami - Narita?

Actually, it took 3 calls - third call was a charm! Not only did we find availability from KIX but also ITM. Our flight back to US leaves at 6:20PM, so I booked the afternoon flight from ITM that arrives at 3:55PM. This flight has only coach, but for a 1:15min flight it shouldn't be that bad.

The flight from KIX had biz, but it was a long layover, since 9:35AM.
Thanks for your suggestion again, ChrisLi^