[MMM]

The experience of living in a city as a resident and visiting a city as a tourist is very different.

If you are visiting friends of family, then that is a different experience, as well. For someone visiting Japan for the first time paying out of pocket for every meal and for a hotel, at a certain point you are going to get diminishing returns.

Visiting a foreign country, especially as one as different from the West as Japan, can be a mentally (and physically) draining experience. When everything is new "off the beaten path" doesn't really make a difference.

I like your idea of focusing on certain areas. It is a good way to get to know a place. However, that works best for people (like you or me) that know how to speak some Japanese, ride trains, order at a restaurant, etc. I lived just outside of Osaka for three years, and there are TONS of places I never had a chance to see. Even know when I go to Osaka I make a point of discovering some of those "hidden gems".