The only thing I had against Kyoto is when you come out of the station or arrive and look about it looks very industrial and lots of shops, however a short walk, bus ride or taxi and you can explore so much, even went to a damn cat cafe.... got my feet scratched to holy hell.
Loved walking up...
We thought the same, but let me re assure you that the train from the airport into Tokyo could not be easier etc, plenty of space, clean and nothing like our experiences in this country, the city is so well connected that not having a car would be easy as we found and parking from what I gather...
Tokyo is amazing and we filled nearly two weeks in Tokyo alone, we took the bullet train to Kyoto and spent a day, to be honest we could / should have stayed over maybe one night to see more.
The trains are amazing and no need to hire a car...