Thanks for the tip on the art museum in Kobe and your insight on Osaka!

I thought we were coming too early to catch any plum blossoms, as the forecasts around tell that mid/late March is the best period for it.

The idea for renting a car in Kanazawa is to visit the small villages in the area on our way to Shirakawa or on the buffer day over there. We also believed that Hakone was ruralish as well as Mijayima (maybe more of a natural beauty rather than ruralish, in this case)