[masraum]

My only thought is that I'm jealous. I lived in Japan in the late 70s and again in the mid 80s as a kid. I love Japan and would love to go back.

I hope this works out for you both.

When I was there, the people were super friendly and helpful and crime was VERY low. As a teen, I spent a couple of days in Tokyo due to a school trips for Track and Cross Country. Our coach would take us to an area of Tokyo, let a bunch of HS kids 14-17 yo go and say "meet back here at XX o'clock." We had a smallish group, but never had any issues. We were stopped several times by Japanese that wanted to practice their English. If you make it to Tokyo, I'd try to time it to be in Harajaku on a weekend day. I believe the different areas of Tokyo are named after the train stations, Ginza (shopping district), Shinjuku (business district), Harajaku (shopping/food/young people), etc...

I would want to see Tokyo and Kyoto (more historic stuff than Tokyo, I believe), but then I'd also want to get away from big cities and see some smaller stuff. I'd check out some of the temples and castles. I think it would also be a good idea to see the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. The good thing is that the country is relatively small, so you should be able to see a wide range of stuff fairly easily.