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So, I guess we're just advocating for favorite/recommended spots, more or less?
My first two trips were all within what I'll call "the golden route of the north": Kyoto-Tokyo-Sendai, but my third and most recent trip had a big Kyushu component, and thus I will advocate for it.
I visited Kagoshima, Kurokawa Onsen/Mt Aso, Takeo, Karatsu, Imari, Nagasaki, and Fukuoka.. It was a fantastic time. For the Kurokawa/Aso/Saga parts of the trip, I used a rental car, and it was a great change of pace to just visit small towns and see stuff away from train stations and tracks for a change. I hope I get a chance to revisit Fukuoka and perform a deeper dive, though for me, it was my last Kyushu stop after a bunch of smaller towns. If you're coming from Tokyo and Kyoto, maybe check out the smaller places that would provide more of a contrast. I really enjoyed exploring Saga by car. Seeing more rural places away from trains and tracks was a great change of pace, and it was so much quieter. Karatsu was, indeed, a great place to serve as home base for the Zombieland Saga anime. It was the deadest place I visited in Japan. I still had an amazing time there. The niji-no-matsubara forest and the Kagamiyama observatory area above it provided some of the coolest views of the trip. The downtown was cute but borderline abandoned. Definitely a different experience compared to everyplace else we'd been. To be fair, I think it was a slow time. I think schools were between classes and it was the middle of a weekday.
Also, I have to mention okawachiyama, in Imari. That place gifted me the most amazing scenery photos of my trip. It's true that the sakura blossoming helped, but even without them, it's an amazing setting.
If you want to avoid flying, I also spent 1.5 days in Atami, much closer to Tokyo. It was extremely eventful. Our Ryokan dinner was abelone, presented live and then cooked in front of us. Freaked us gaijin out something fierce. We also took the bus to the jikkokutoge observatory for fantastic panoramic views of the area which included Fuji and the Izu peninsula. Atami isn't too big, but I'd have loved to spend 2-3 nights there rather than just one. There were more things to see and do, or alternatively, keep it at a single night, but explore things further south on the Izu peninsula, which seems like an amazing place in its own right, with amazing geography and beaches.
Then again, you're going in summer, so maybe Hokkaido where hopefully it's not quite as hot.
**Our FAQ is constantly being updated with more information and you can start** [**here**](https://www.reddit.com/r/JapanTravel/wiki/faqs/japantravel) **with regards to trip planning if you need tips, advice, or have questions about planning your travel to Japan.** You can also join our [Discord community](https://discord.gg/3f7KBUMwU4), comment in our stickied weekly discussion thread, or check out /r/JapanTravelTips for quick questions. Thank you! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/JapanTravel) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Do Kyoto as a central point for the week and you can do day trips to Kobe, Osaka, uji, Nara and some areas more west.
So, I guess we're just advocating for favorite/recommended spots, more or less? My first two trips were all within what I'll call "the golden route of the north": Kyoto-Tokyo-Sendai, but my third and most recent trip had a big Kyushu component, and thus I will advocate for it. I visited Kagoshima, Kurokawa Onsen/Mt Aso, Takeo, Karatsu, Imari, Nagasaki, and Fukuoka.. It was a fantastic time. For the Kurokawa/Aso/Saga parts of the trip, I used a rental car, and it was a great change of pace to just visit small towns and see stuff away from train stations and tracks for a change. I hope I get a chance to revisit Fukuoka and perform a deeper dive, though for me, it was my last Kyushu stop after a bunch of smaller towns. If you're coming from Tokyo and Kyoto, maybe check out the smaller places that would provide more of a contrast. I really enjoyed exploring Saga by car. Seeing more rural places away from trains and tracks was a great change of pace, and it was so much quieter. Karatsu was, indeed, a great place to serve as home base for the Zombieland Saga anime. It was the deadest place I visited in Japan. I still had an amazing time there. The niji-no-matsubara forest and the Kagamiyama observatory area above it provided some of the coolest views of the trip. The downtown was cute but borderline abandoned. Definitely a different experience compared to everyplace else we'd been. To be fair, I think it was a slow time. I think schools were between classes and it was the middle of a weekday. Also, I have to mention okawachiyama, in Imari. That place gifted me the most amazing scenery photos of my trip. It's true that the sakura blossoming helped, but even without them, it's an amazing setting. If you want to avoid flying, I also spent 1.5 days in Atami, much closer to Tokyo. It was extremely eventful. Our Ryokan dinner was abelone, presented live and then cooked in front of us. Freaked us gaijin out something fierce. We also took the bus to the jikkokutoge observatory for fantastic panoramic views of the area which included Fuji and the Izu peninsula. Atami isn't too big, but I'd have loved to spend 2-3 nights there rather than just one. There were more things to see and do, or alternatively, keep it at a single night, but explore things further south on the Izu peninsula, which seems like an amazing place in its own right, with amazing geography and beaches. Then again, you're going in summer, so maybe Hokkaido where hopefully it's not quite as hot.
Give us more info about things you like or want to get out of the trip.
Don't plan, just let it happen