Hi. Me and my 2 cousins are going to japan this April and we're staying for the month, and we have the general idea of what parts of the country we are going to. But we don't have any actual information about the stops on the way! We, or atleast I, would appreciate any recommendation or tips on places to stay based on the loose travel plan below

Our travel plan is pretty simple.
We are going to take a plane to Tokyo and spend a week adjusting to the Japanese time zone and hopefully pick up a few hints on how to be polite, so we can come back and maybe meet up with people we met last time.

After that week we have about 2 weeks that we will roam around between Tokyo. Osaka and Kyoto, and then we will go back to Tokyo for another week to just do some souvenir shopping and finish exploring the city. We will probably spend about 3 - 5 days in both Kyoto and Osaka leaving us around alittle less than a week to see places you might recommend on the way.

Places to stay will be really crucial. Since we don't have an actual travel plan with pre booked hotels to give us more freedom to follow up on recommendations by Japanese people while we are there any tips or website giving us more information about guest houses, inns or hotels (Prefer cheap ones ^_^) that we could try visiting if we need to stay for a night or two.

Thanks before hand and sorry for the long post =)

Hiroshima and Takayama are other good places . Visiting Hiroshima was a good experience and seeing the Peace Museum is worth the trip itself.

Takayama is a really great rural type of town. Lots of scenery and places to go,wander and see (Takayama is known for it's carpentry and it has preserved alot of the traditional houses & streets)

You can stay in hostels for both places K's-house (Hiroshima) and J-hoppers (Takayama) so the accomodation will be cheap. Both places are accessible via Shinkansen (Bullet train). Although you may have to take an alternative standard train ride to go to Takayama (I am not 100% sure on this though)

Thanks! Sounds pretty interesting and worth checking into more

The only reason I haven't been to Tokyo yet is because I didn't think I would be able to afford a vacation there. I was told by my friend that works there that prices have gone done since the recession began back in 2007. Apparently I can stay at hostels in downtown Tokyo and have hundreds of dollars on my vacation. This April I have decided to go ahead and book a ticket to Tokyo and finally go on my dream vacation.