Multi-day crosscountry hikes in Tohoku

I love walking through countryside, basically. I have found routes in other parts of Japan (Chubu and Kyushu) that work. Now I want to walk in Tohoku.

I am not so much looking for mountains with climbers huts. I would prefer to overnight in small towns, staying at minshuku or ryokan.

Basically, I want to string together some one-day hikes so that I can forward baggage 2 days ahead by takkyubin, and just picnic on obento when I feel like it, far from traffic.

The more varied the landscape (farms, hills, forests, coast) the better. Any season other than winter.

Any suggestions, anyone?

The Hiking in Japan Guide by Lonely Planet has some nice one-day and multi-day hikes in Tohoku. I own this book and the descriptions are clear and it contains information about getting to and from the hike and about onsen and ryokan.

Lonely Planet Hiking Guide

Hiking maps of the areas can be found on Amazon.jp.

- and another by Paul Hunt: same title.

The descriptions are clear, but without knowing the area it is hard to see which of the hikes can be 'strung' together.

Also, they are largely mountain trails, which is fine, but I am looking for cross-country terrain as well - town-to-town paths, valleys and gorges, routes through farming land etc.

But I will study those books further.

I have used the lonely planet hiking guide extensively. It is a good book in terms of hikes and access but be aware that many of my hiking friends and I feel that it really underestimates the travel times. We are all experienced hikers and find that we need to add 20-30% more time for the average hiker. The author must have had some giant stride or been speed hiking.

Useful information, to be sure!