Originally Posted by
tkeppers
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We did the 5 nights in Kyoto to take advantage of 5th night free award night at the Westin, but the trip is arranged such that we can spend an extra day or two in Tokyo if we like it better (my prediction is husband will prefer Tokyo, and I will favor Kyoto, but we'll see
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With an extra day or two in Kyoto, plan to use your Rail Pass to get out of the city. Take a day trip to Nara or Himeji or both. If you get up early, you could even do a day trip down to Hiroshima. You are already considering a day trip to Lake Biwa for the matsuri (festival.)
I love Kyoto and can spend as long there as I have available but there are many very nice day trips from Kyoto and the Rail Pass plus shinkansen will really open up other, fairly close, locations that are very different from Tokyo and Kyoto.