Kanazawa (again) or something else?

Hello,
I recently posted about rail passes regarding Kyushu+Kanazawa. That got answered (thank you!) and so I moved on to planning the Kanazawa segment of my trip, only to discover I had been in Kanazawa 10 years ago!
So my question now is, if you had 4 nights and 5 days in mid-November to get between Kyushu and Narita airport, how would you spend it?

Preferences are outdoor activities with beautiful views in cooler temperatures but not snow, less touristy, love public transit but partner gets motion sickness on buses and long train rides, prefer not to rent a car but would happily rent a bicycle, and prefer a more leisurely pace with comfortable accommodations and delicious, fresh food.

The full itinerary:
Tokyo for 3 nights, 2 days.
Taiwan
Kagoshima for 3 nights
Yufu 2 nights
Fukuoka 3 nights, with day trip to Nagasaki
4 nights (Nov 13-17)...help!????
Fly out of Narita Nov 17 at 18:00

Some things that looked interesting:
Hiking Nakasendo trail, somewhere in Gunma, just stick close to Kanazawa like originally planned, or something else completely?

Kobe, Nara, Kyoto, and Osaka were the more memorable parts of that previous trip to Japan, but the description of a tourist loop bus and a market with sushi sounded super familiar so I looked back at old Facebook pictures to find myself tagged at Kenroku. This will be partner's first time in Japan.

If your partner has never been to Japan, then you must include Kyoto and Nara, for your partner even though you’ve been there. Besides, mid Nov might just be the start of Koyo season (autumnal foliage). I have been to Kyoto many times and loved it every time.

Endless options. Obviously Kyoto/ Nara is a possibility. Shikoku (part of it) would be an other. But there are just way too many possibilities for 4 days between Kyushu and Tokyo.

There is a lot to do in Kanazawa besides Kenroku-en:

Myoryuji (Ninjadera): Very cool residence with hidden passages and traps it was built to protect the shogun. There are 30 minute tours in English.
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art: Very nice museum designed by the Japanese architecture firm SANAA features a James Turrell skyspace
Nomura-Ke Samurai house: a preserved Samurai residence
Oyama-Jinja Shrine
Kanazawa Castle Park
Kanazawa Yasue Gold Leaf Museum: Kanazawa is known for crafts involving gold leaf a result of years of immense prosperity due to their rice crops
Geisha districts and Samurai Districts
There are also a bunch of other museums around Kenroku-en that may be of interest
As well Kenroku-en is worth visiting again and maybe it is at a different time of year from when you first visited?

It is worth carving out time for Kyoto for your partners sake. Not sure Nara is a "must" ... I am going for the first time on my upcoming trip (3rd trip to Japan) ... It is not that I don't think it is worth it, but on limited time you can just as easily stay in Kyoto and see just as noteworthy attractions and minus the deer (which I realize for most people makes Nara 'magical', but I see deer practically every day of my life and find them annoying (they are over populated and eat all the flowers!))

I seem to be on the minority but I do not think any place is a must-see, and you could certainly skip Kyoto if you wished to. Maybe you should let your partner decide, since he has not been there before? Mine brought me to Kinkaku-ji on my first trip to Kyoto (because he though it was a must-see), while I would have preferred spending more time in Sannenzaka instead.

A bold choice would be to fly from Fukuoka to Sendai, visit Tohoku and make your way down to Narita from there.

Onomichi makes a good base for vsiting the Seto area (I stayed in Mihara - dull city, but with even better train access). You could also use Okayama as a base, and visit Kyoto on your way to Tokyo, if you just want to see one or two attractions.

It is good that you mention that your partner gets sick easily. Please ignore my previous hint at taking the bus from Kumamoto to Kurokawa onsen! Also, in Taiwan, don't go to Alishan by bus. I have not taken the train, but I doubt it could be worse than the bus (I don't get sick, but it was a very long and bumpy ride).

I would recommend Takachiho to anyone visiting Kyushu. My favourite town in Japan and would serve those who love biking. As for Kanazawa, I've been there once for 2 nights. I found it a charming city with lovely bicycle network, but it's not must-see and wouldn't be visiting for the second time.

I don’t get motion sickness myself, but my partner does, and I understand how miserable it can be. And once it kicks in, it can take quite a while to go away, even after you end the ride that triggered it. We have never had any problems with shinkansen rides, after many dozens of them. Buses, and trains that wind through mountain areas are the worst. But any local or limited express train can sometimes “rock” quite a bit. (Try not to use the toilet on a train when it is in motion—walking down the aisle to get there and back when the train is rocking from side to side can be a real trigger.)

If you are worried about this, one thing you can do is keep your travels confined largely to the Sanyo and Tokaido shinkansen lines. There are so many places you can go. Kanazawa would probably be okay (the Thunderbird to Tsuruga is not terribly long or particularly windy, and then after that you can use the shinkansen all the way to Tokyo). But it does entail more hours of train travel than the Nozomi from Kansai to Tokyo. (By the way, if you go to Kanazawa you don’t have to take the sightseeing bus. It is often crowded, and you might have to stand up, which can aggravate motion sickness. Most of the major attractions there are a relatively short cab ride from Kanazawa Station, and once you get to Kenrokuen, Omicho Market, or the Modern Art Museum, you can fairly easily walk to most of the popular sites, if you are able walkers. I sometimes use the JR buses there (generally not crowded like the loop buses; I have never had to stand) but the schedules aren’t terribly convenient. The last couple of times I went to Kanazawa I used cabs and it was well worth the extra money.)

A nice thing about having a rail pass is that you can take nonreserved seating and just get off at the next stop if you start to feel sick, and then hop on the next train once you feel better. It’s best to do a quick check of schedules before getting off, to make sure you wont be stuck at a station for too long. But there isn’t really a practical rail pass for getting from Kansai to Tokyo. (JR West has some passes that will get you from Osaka or Kyoto to Kanazawa, but they may not suit you. There is no decent pass that covers the Hokuriku shinkansen from Kanazawa to Tokyo or the Tokaido shinkansen from Osaka to Tokyo.)

I think it would be a pity to skip Kyoto. (If it’s “overtourism” that bothers you, just don’t go to the places where most tourists go. There are so many other places that are just as good and won’t be crowded.) I also like Okayama as a place to sleep. There are many good day trips from there, including some that don’t require long train rides. People seem to think that if they “go to” Okayama they have to sightsee there, but I don’t find any of the attractions in the city center to be particularly great. (Some people like Korakuen, but I’m not all that nuts about it.) I do really like Kibitsu Jinja. You have to take a local train for about 15 minutes to get there from Okayama Station, but it’s not a windy route. You might enjoy cycling around the Kibi Plain. Takamatsu (with its incomparable Ritsurin Koen) is only a one-hour train ride, and one of my favorite day trips from Okayama, but it’s possible that the stretch over the Seto Ohashi Bridge, or maybe other parts of the ride, could be troublesome in terms of motion sickness. (I don’t think it’s particularly rocky or curvy, though.)