[Pumpkin Pie]

DIY also. We split our holiday by staying in Tokyo and Kyoto with day trips from both. We bought the JR Rail Pass.

From Kyoto we did day trips to Hiroshima, Nara and Himeji Castle. Travel around Japan is really easy - everything is in English at stations and the people are very helpful also. I suppose if you travel to remote areas it would be different.

I would strongly recommend booking a hotel next to a main railway station in Tokyo if they go DIY as that is how you get about everywhere.

We are library members and borrowed Japan travel books to plan our itinerary. There is loads of information online - check out japan-guide/ and japan.travel/en/ for starters.