Hi there,

My wife and I are looking to visit foreign lands for the first time together, and we have some questions about Japan. We're from Florida, and the only other countries we've been to are in the Caribbean. We're both 30, in good shape, and travel a lot within the US. We love to hike, fish, and be outdoors. Our favorite cities here in the US are either old Florida beaches (no condos or high rises) or small mountain towns elsewhere. We don't hate NYC, Chicago, etc, but we'd much prefer seeing vast amounts of "nothing", in cleaner air, with more pristine nature. We love Southwestern Colorado, Southern Utah, the mountains in Idaho, the Sierra Nevada's, the North Cascades, National Parks, etc.

Now that you know a little bit about us, here's the dilemma. We have an opportunity to visit either Japan/Korea or most anywhere in Europe on a first class flight in late September, so I figured Japan would be great, as I've always wanted to go there. I imagined quiet ancient temples, mountainside villages, and pristine nature. After doing a bit of research, it's hard to find good information aside from the big cities. Yes, we would love to visit Tokyo and Kyoto, but not more than a couple days. We have a total of 2 weeks for our trip.

My question is this: Would visiting Japan for 2 weeks allow us the time to get off the beaten path quite a bit, or is that time period more suited for hanging around the big cities? We would absolutely not want to be in a concrete jungle for 2 weeks straight.

Thanks!