Itinerary suggestions

Hello all

We are planning a trip to Japan in October 2024. I know it is too early but I just canft contain my excitement! I love to plan ahead.
So please help me!

We are a family of 4. Our kids will be 12 and 10 when we travel. Japan is a vast country with a lot of places to enjoy. It will not be possible to cover the entire country. Apart from Tokyo and Kyoto, wefd love to travel to a couple of eoff the beaten pathf places. It is very difficult to decide this. We are not into hot springs and hikes. Would like to visit quiet villages and see the countryside.
Please suggest some places.
Thank you 🙏

I welcome you in my city.That is Beppu.
Located in oita prefecture.
So i suggest you to land in Fukuoka airport. then you will buy SunQ bus pass.now you will visit 5 prefecture unlimited time for 3 days.yo u will visit fukuoka,oita,kumamoto,nagasaki, saga prefecture unlimited time by bus.

If you look at a map and draw a line between Tokyo and Hiroshima, everything else is realistically off the beaten track.

Can you tell us more about what you actually want? City that limit number of tourists visit? Old small local village that quant?

Public transport only? Y/N
Car? Y/N

I'll list a few closers to Tokyo/Osaka without know the above answers...

Sendai
Toyama
Fukui
Gujo-Hachiman
Okayama
Tsyama
Tsuwano
Pretty much all of Shikoku
Pretty much all of Kyushu

The first thing to know is how much time do you have?
One week, 10 days, 4 weeks?
That will determine whatelse beside Tokyo and Kyoto you can see.
If you only have 1 week, Tokyo and Kyoto (plus nearby day-trip destinations) are pretty much all you have time for.
If 10 days, you can add Hiroshima/Miyajima to above.
If 2 weeks, then you can start digging deeper.

Thank you all for your suggestions.

To answer your questions:

We are looking for small villages that are easy to get to. We will be traveling around by public transport only.

Planning for 2 weeks.
Was looking at places like Okayama, Kurashiki and Takamatsu if they are recommended.

Thanks again!

Define gsmall villageh

Okayama and Takayama donft qualify in my eyes as small village. And donft qualify as goff the beaten trackh
Kurashiki is smaller though.

There isnft anything bad about Okayama and Takayama. Just not a gsmall village off the beaten trackh

Something that comes to my mind between Tokyo and Kyoto area for gsmall village and (somewhat) off the beaten track:
- Yamatoyagi and Akusa in Nara prefecture
http://bicycletraveljapan.blogspot.com/search?q=Yamatoyagi&m=1

- Omihachiman and Hikone in Shiga prefecture and potentuallly Miho museum
http://bicycletraveljapan.blogspot.com/search?q=Hachiman&m=1

http://bicycletraveljapan.blogspot.com/2019/04/miho-museum-perfect-day...

- Chichibu in Saitama prefecture
http://bicycletraveljapan.blogspot.com/search?q=Chichibu&m=1

None of them are completely off the beaten track, but reasonably so.

If you want really off the beaten track Sadogashima (Niigata) , Memanbetsu or Wakkanai (Hokkaido), Tokamachi and surroundings (Niigata) or even Tono (Iwate) come to MY mind.

I think Kiso Valley might be an area to look at. You see, the problem with small villages is that there isnt much to do there.

On our recent trip, we based ourselves at Kiso-Fukushima for 3 nights. We did walks around Kiso-Fukushima on day one. then on the train about 20 minutes to Narai on day 2 (actually while it is beautiful, it was dead as a doornail on the weekday). There is a hike from Narai to Yabuhara (about 7km) which unfortunately we couldnt do due to ice at the time.

Then the next day we caught the train to Nakatsugawa, then bus to Magome (another beautiful town, this time it was Saturday and it was very lively), then walked from there to Tsumago (about 8km) then went from there back to Kiso Fukushima (which was a bit of a production due to the train timetables, best to make sure you get to Tsumago before 3 or maybe there is a bus, the closest train station is Nagiso and it didnt have frequent services).

Anyway, check out those towns, I think that might be what you are looking for. It is easy to get there - get to Nagoya, then a fairly frequent train along the Chuo line to Kiso Fukushima.

Okayama, Kurashiki, and Takayama are all nice, but I don't know what's in them for your kids.
You may want to add places like Nara Park and Okunoshima Island to mix variety a bit.
https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e4103.html
https://www.japan-guide.com/blog/far-flung/180912.html