First (and probably only) trip to Japan

Hi all
Planning to visit May 2020 for 3 weeks
We are fit mid 50s
We would love to do some walking in beautiful culturally significant areas
Not interested in cities ( apart from a token glimpse ) nor in shopping
But we want to stay in relatively nice accomodation where we can eat and drink well after a busy day out and about
Suggested itineraries please

Kindly submit your itinerary so we can better help your tweak your trip. We will help you, but this is not a travel agency where itineraries are generated. But just to let you know, culturally significant areas do include cities, such as Kyoto, Kanazawa, Hiroshima, etc. please don�ft count them because they are �gcities�h.

You can start from here to give it a framework, and others will come up with their personal suggestions:
https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2400.html

Enjoy planning!

Explore Your Interests
https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e623.html

Agree with PPs

Culture and hiking, then a pilgrimage springs to mind. There are many different ones to suit your hiking style. Eg Kii Katsuura, Chichibu...

Enjoy planning your trip to Japan!

And make sure you pay attention to budget. Lots of people want to fit in all sorts of places in a trip but then complain about prices being high. A few things to note: Expressways in Japan have tolls. Some areas offer special toll passes, but you still need to look into drop off fees if you're not returning the car to where you borrowed it. The fees can be substantial. Non-expressway driving tends to have low speed limits. What one person considers a "relatively nice" accommodation might be subpar to one person or luxury to another. We all have our own budgets for Japan.

At present, the amount of information given unfortunately gives me no information to give you any specific suggestions on where to travel. The only thing I will say is do consider traveling outside of Golden Week - which is the busiest time in Japan for travel and occurs in May.

Golden week is a time where money will often not fix problems including availability of hotels or transport as 110 million people are on holiday at the same time. Completing a simple "Golden Week 2020 Japan Dates" search on google will give you the days to avoid.

Regarding GW, I need to disagree with @mfedley (I normally always agree with him though).

I have travelled a few times during GW through Japan, once to Shikoku, and I was pleasantly surprised how few tourists there were. So yes, probably during a normal week there are even less, but it was no problem at all.

This year I am going to travel to Tokyo, Nara prefecture, Matsue and Izumo (don't ask, I know it is not a logical itinerary, but I want to meet friends this weekend in Tokyo) during the extra long GW, and I got accomodation in all these places (booked in February) for 8,000 yen or less (1 person), simple rooms. Several nights even at less than 5000 Yen (e.g. Matsue), Izumo just slightly above the 5000 Yen and in inner Nara prefecture even at less than 3500 Yen / night. The most expensive being Tokyo at about 7500 Yen/night (but I plan to pay that with my Toyoko Inn points... there must be at least some benefit from my company sending me to Toyoko Inns for business trips...)

While reserving early is preferred a colleague of mine just reserved on Monday this week a onsen stay in Shirahama (South of Wakayama prefecture) and was happy with the price. So even relatively last minute booking is possible.

Getting your train tickets for popular routes (Kansai - Kanto) early is advised, but specially on the first/last day. However even as late as last week flights between Kansai and Tokyo on Saturday this week (one of the most popular travel days) were still very affordable, and another colleague just booked one.

Yes, if you can avoid GW, by all means avoid it (although the benefit of GW is that there are no closed days for museums etc... but in the week following GW there might be an extra day of closure and you might get to see some local festivals specially held during GW). But if your preferred travel dates are in GW, don't be afraid. Just get your hotel reservation early enough and your train reservation. And probably stay away from destinations such as Disneyland.

But you will be fine, even in GW.