[masaegu]

Samurai007 made an excellent point! Go explore the back streets in any town you might visit including Tokyo. You sure will get to see the different sides of a town. You will miss so much if you only choose to stroll on the busy main streets. Stores and restaurants tend to be more unique and friendlier on the back streets because their counterparts on the main streets often tend to depend solely on their good locations for more business and neglect on proving good service.

Anyway, my favorite cities are Kobe, Sapporo, Hakodate, Fukuoka, etc.. Too bad they are all so far from Tokyo, which is where I reside. For onsen, I highly recommend Noboribetsu and Gero.