Its perfectly doable to land, activate Rail Pass and then move to your starting city by Shikansen on the same day. In 2019 we moved all the way to Hiroshima on the first day and stayed in Tokyo at the end for a couple days.

This order also very useful if you want to buy stome stuff, as usually Tokay has the best selection but you don't want to lug it all over Japan with you - best do the shopping at the end of the trip.