South West Japan
 

I am sort of recommending South West Japan to people from Japan as a place to vist on account of the extent of the concern reported about Fukushima in Central Honshu.

Fukuoka which is in the South West area has an interesting history of Buddhism's introduction to Japan.

Additionally in the Southwest area can be found 88 Pilgrimage Places that Buddhist Pilgrims like to visit.

also if i am not mistaken you can visit shimane in SW Japan to see how tamahagane is made from the pure iron sand that is there. well that is if they allow you to :cool:

kumamoto is kind of inaka but it has a really awesome castle with some of the original structure to it and there is also mt. aso. It's the worlds largest caldera. when i went they had some awesome green apple soft serve ice cream.

I recommend Nara Park (Nara Kōen). It's a beautiful park. There's also Tōdai-ji temple and there are a lot of deer walking around. They are certainly not afraid of humans. This photo is taken by a friend and me:

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j8...9/DSC01032.jpg

It's a great place.