I bought some of those $399 roundtrip UA tickets (see mileage run forum) to take my family to Japan in April. I've taken a couple of trips to Japan, but the last one was with my wife-to-be more than a decade ago, so my tourist knowledge is somewhat frozen in time. In the next several months I'll need to come up with a plan for our 10-day visit.

Before buying my airline tickets (I suspected I had slightly more than the usual 15 minutes that mileage run fares typically have), I researched one thing: if we flew into Tokyo and out of Osaka, could we "bookend" our trip with stays in Tokyo and Kyoto? The answer seemed to be yes (my preliminary info indicated it was quite possible to get to the new Osaka airport from Kyoto without spending a fortune), so I booked it that way. My thought was that we could travel around Japan with a 7 day railpass in-between.

My first question is this: is the Japan railpass still the best way to get around, especially if you've got to pay for 2 adults and 2 kids (which I understand are half price under 12)? Are there any other rail programs that could save money if we wanted to stop in 3 or 4 other towns/villages? I haven't mapped out an itinerary yet, but I think I want to go back to Takayama, and a couple of other "old Japan" stops (any recommendations are certainly welcome!), and maybe Hiroshima. I've heard that car rental rates can sometimes be affordable (especially if the alternative is 4 rail tickets), but is it advisable for an American to drive in Japan? I've driven all over the world, but never where I couldn't read the street signs. It seems like it could get difficult. I also understand that tolls and gas are also quite expensive.

I remember hotel prices being a burden, but I suspect I can now priceline some cities (hooray for priceline -- in the US and Europe, I typically pay less for my hotels than I did 15 years ago). Any specific tips on finding affordable lodging -- especially for a family -- would be most appreciated. For instance, will I be able to cram 4 people into a typical Tokyo hotel room? And if anyone has used priceline in Tokyo, is there a good zone/likely hotel I should bid on?

Also, is it possible to see any cherry blossoms in Japan in mid-April -- maybe in the higher elevations? Any tips would be great.

I've started reading through the posts from the past few months, and I can see this will be a great source of information for our family trip. As I wade through the info and get up to speed on what I "missed" in the past decade, I'm sure I'll have more questions. Thanks for the help.