What’s a good place to visit in Japan that isn’t the big cities like Tokyo or Osaka?

Whenever my parents would take me to visit another country, we'd always go to someplace notably smaller than the capital or a noteworthy city. I discussed traveling to Japan with them a while back, and they liked that idea, so I'd like to keep up the tradition of going somewhere obscure. Any good places in particular I can visit that aren't the big cities?

by Winter-State-Dave86