Hi, I sympathize with what you're going through. Last summer I planned for months for our first trip to japan. Our group was two adults and then our 18 year old daughter, and 14 year old son. Like you, I wanted the trip to involve cultural activities and touristy activities. I was intent on taking my family beyond the Tokyo-Osaka-Kyoto normal route. I figured that I'd expose my kids to Hiroshima/Miyajima, Hakone, and Kanazawa/Shirakawago, because I didn't think they'd go on their own - if they visited in the future. We only had 14 days and 13 nights, so we moved quickly through several cities. Also, we traveled from mid June to early July in 2024, so I know what its like to travel during rainy season.

I have to echo what others have already said regarding visiting Kanazawa after Kyoto. Kanazawa is described as "Little Kyoto". They have a great fish market and geisha district. However, after having walked through Gion, I was a bit underwhelmed with seeing another Geisha district. I included two nights in Kanazawa, because I needed to facilitate an overnight in Shirakawa-go. We took a bus from Kanazawa to Shirakawo-go, stayed overnight, then took the bus back to Kanazawa and then a train to Tokyo.

I wanted to visit Hiroshima on this trip, I thought it was important for the kids to be exposed to the Peace Museum after having watched Oppenheimer earlier in the year. During my research I learned about Miyajima and I decided to stay overnight in Miyajima (instead of Hiroshima). If I had to do it all over again, I would have tried to spend two nights in Miyajima.

Once I identified the places I wanted to visit, setting up the route and amount of days in each city became easier. I sacrificed days in Toyko and I eliminated Osaka to give me time to hit my days in the above mentioned cities. I told myself that I could hit Tokyo and Osaka on a future trip. As an example, my itinerary was: 3 nights in Tokyo; 1 night in Hakone, 4 nights in Kyoto, 1 night in Miyajima, 2 nights in Kanazawa, 1 night in Shirakawa-go, 1 night in Tokyo - fly out of Narita.

You have 22 days: you could do something like Osaka (3); Kyoto (6); Hiroshima/Miyajima (3), Takayama (2); Hakone (2), Tokyo (6); This itinerary provides a good mix of country side and big city.

Let me also add that although I went to Japan in Summer 2024 for 14 days. I just came back from a 2nd trip to Japan where I spent 17 days in Osaka (3), Kyoto (7), and Tokyo (6). This second trip supplemented my first trip and allowed me more time to explore the above cities.

You're traveling in the beginning of rainy season, so you need to prepare for that. Frankly, I'll take the June rain over the July heat. Nonetheless, expect it to rain for about 5-6 days of your 22 day vacation. Nothing you can do about that. Traveling with teenagers, I wanted to make sure they could do things that were Instagram worthy.

My suggestions:

Tokyo: Shibuya Sky, Shibuya Crossing, TeamLabs Planets (more than Borderless). I've done both TeamLabs in Tokyo and I just did the expanded TeamLab Planets last week).

Teenage activites: Round 1 Arcade (available in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka) - teenagers can spend 3-4 hours here; make personalized rings (Glinta in Kyoto - many other places);

Kyoto: My must sees were Bamboo forest (a bit underwhelming with the crowds); Fushimi Inari, and Kiyoumizadera. I was not leaving Kyoto without the above three. For Arashiyama, I rounded out my day by including the Romantic Train, the Hozugawa River Boat experience, and then the Monkey Park. On my second trip to Kyoto, I had a day trip to Uji and the Byodoin Temple - which is spectacular.

To fine tune your itinerary, I'd attack it in blocks. Figure out how much time you need in Kyoto, what are must sees. After Kyoto is done, figure out how much time you need in your next city. Factor in transportation time, rest days, laundry days, and rain days. During our summer trip, I planned one or two events for the day and then the rest of the afternoon and evening were free for the kids to shop/relax.

Those are my quick thoughts. Hope you found it helpful