I've been away from Japan for several years now and want some advice on less-than-touristy things to see and do. For my last several trips I would rent a car with my SO, pack a tent, and road-trip around Honshu eating, drinking, shitty-hotel-sleeping, or tent camping our way around. It was fucking great. But this time I have young kids involved. (By the way I'm planning this trip for summer 2021 so I'm optimistically assuming COVID is less of a problem by then).
If someone asked me the best way to get to know Japan, I would tell them to spend a couple weeks in Tokyo and then spend a couple weeks car-camping across the countryside. If you guys were away from Japan for a significant amount of time, what kind of things would you want to do when you had the chance? I would really love to know some of your favorites.