We're trying to plan a 10 or 11 day September 2014 trip to Japan, partly to burn Hyatt points before the devaluation. We've been to Japan a few times before, but I've only been to Kyoto and Kanazawa, so this time we're going to concentrate on both Tokyo and Kyoto, but try to see a couple of other things too. We'll fly in and out of Tokyo (from London).

The rough plan at the moment is to spend a couple nights at the Park Hyatt Tokyo while we see the city. We have a couple of open days, wondering about an overnight at a temple at Koyasan?

Then three nights at the Kyoto Hyatt Regency. Then we're interested in a couple of nights experiencing an onsen before two more nights at the Park Hyatt Tokyo.

We tend to be very quick with sightseeing etc - we often get through what people usually regard as 3 or 4 days of sightseeing in a single day. We would like to have a mix of "old Japan" including temples and shrines, as well as getting to know Tokyo. We like to eat and walk around, but don't need masses of tourist attractions to keep us entertained.

Questions:

Considering that many flights get in late afternoon or early evening, we were wondering about booking a cheap business hotel near the Nippori stop of the Skyliner from the airport, so we don't waste a night at the PH while totally jetlagged. Any thoughts on this strategy?

Similarly, on the master thread, I noticed the suggestion that if you're flying out of NRT before 2pm it might make sense to stay in Narita City. Is that a good rule of thumb?

I have read the threads about snowy onsen and haven't come to any conclusions about where we should go -- Kinosaki is one option that comes up a lot, and the Nagano area, maybe Shibu Onsen sounds interesting, especially the trip to the monkey park. Any favorites or places we should avoid?