Originally Posted by
hakzai
I will be driving from Tokyo to Kyoto, stopping along some small cities/towns on the way.
Which cities and towns do you want to stop at? And how long are you allowing for the drive?
Most traffic between these two cities follows the expressway along the pacific coast, which is rather boring and doesn't take you through cities that are particularly interesting from a touristic point of view. If you're intending to do it at a very leisurely pace, you might take a back roads route through Nagano and Gifu that could be enjoyable, I guess.