Suggested day trips Tokyo, Kyoto or Hiroshima

Hello,

We're fortunate that we have an extra day on the last leg of our trip, which is from Kyoto to HiroshimaMiyajima for one night and then back to Tokyo for our flight home.

We had initially planned to spend four days/nights in Tokyo with three full days and a day trip to Kamakura.

However, now with our planning we have an extra day. So should we:
1. Spend 5 days in Tokyo?
2. Spend one day in Osaka instead on the way back from Hiroshima to Tokyo?
3. Explore a possible day trip from either Kyoto (we're already going to Nara), Hiroshima (we're going to Miyajima) or Tokyo (we're going to Kamakura)

Any suggestions please? We have the rail pass so travelling will not be a problem.

Thank you.

A nice day trip out of Kyoto if your looking for a walk would be taking the train to Kibune (about an hour 10 and can leave Kyoto around 9am); walk Kibune-Kumara via temple etc and return Kumara to Kyoto on train (about an hour 05 leave Kumara around 3.20). Back in time to do something additional in Kyoto for the evening.

Some suggestions:

From Hiroshima a nice trip is to Okayama and Kurashiki. Okayama has one of Japan's top gardens, museums, etc. and Kurashiki has a large well-preserved district of historic Edo Period buildings. If you see Korakuen Garden and a few places in Okayama (like Okayama Castle, Yumeji Art Museum, etc.) you can spend half the day there and the other half of the day in Kurashiki milling around the buildings, shops, and museums there. It seems to compliment your current itinerary, since the places you are visiting at the moment don't really offer the same type of sites.

Another alternative from Kyoto is Hikone. The main reason to go here is to see Hikone Castle, an original castle, which is also something that is not currently on your itinerary to see.

If it were me, I would be inclined to stay the extra night in Tokyo with the intention of going someplace in Tohoku. The new E5 trains that they are using for the Hayabusa runs (and now some Hikari runs) look so snazzy and comfortable, and there are a lot of destinations that are manageable as a day trip. In general, I think that the options for practical day trips out of Tokyo are a little more extensive and varied than the options from Kansai, so you can take better advantage of spur of the moment decisions that take weather and whimsy into account.

There have been so many threads on Tohoku (including the specific topic of day trips from Tokyo) that I won't go into specific suggestions, but I'll put in another plug for the Tohoku Shinkansen. Great train ride on any of the train sets, except just don't get stuck on the lower level of one of the double-decker cars!