My family and our friends spent 9 days in the Japan Tohoku (northeast) in early August 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C5%8Dhoku_region

When compared with Tokyo and Hokkaido, Tohoku is a less popular tourist spot for Hong Kong people. We visited three of the six prefectures in Tohoku this time, they are Miyagi (Sendai), Aomori, and Iwate. As Tohoku covers a large area, it really takes us over a week to complete the tour from Sendai and Aomori. Moreover, nearly each city has its own summer festival in early August, really worth a visit for travelers.

Tohoku is a peaceful place with beautiful landscape and scenery. The color changes in different season. Although the green in summer is a bit less photogenic than that of autumn, it is still rather attractive. People of Tohoku are very friendly and helpful even though English is not very common in the place.