Kyoto hotels booked out early april, travel from Osaka?

Small addition: when I decide to stay in Osaka and visit Kyoto from there, it seems smart to change my itinerary as well, originally I had it planned like this:

04-4-2014 Kanazawa to Kyoto
05-4-2014 Kyoto
06-4-2014 Kyoto
07-4-2014 Kyoto (daytrip Nara)
08-4-2014 Kyoto
09-4-2014 Kyoto to Koyasan (mount Koyo)
10-4-2014 Koyasan to Osaka
11-4-2014 Osaka to Hiroshima

It seems smart to change this into:
04-4-2014 Kanazawa to Osaka
05-4-2014 Osaka
06-4-2014 Osaka
07-4-2014 Osaka (daytrip Nara)
08-4-2014 Osaka
09-4-2014 Osaka
10-4-2014 Osaka to Koyasan (mount Koyo)
11-4-2014 Koyasan to Hiroshima

My original itinerary

Hi Pim,

I guess people are starting to reserve their hotels for the Cherry Blossom season. Have you considered looking at hostels in Kyoto? I use hostelworld.com a lot when staying in Japan and it works great - not only for hostels - but also for budget Ryokans and business hotels, I even booked a capsule hotel once.

Also Don't stay near Shin-Osaka the area is as boring as a block of concrete can be! If you do want to stay in Osaka, either stay near Umeda (Osaka station) or around Namba which I've always felt is the real heart of Osaka and has some great atmosphere, food and the best night life!

You could also give Rakuten Travel a try!

Hope this helps!
Daniel