Good small Japanese city to visit?

Question:

Two summers ago, I lived in Kōriyama in Fukushima prefecture for three months. I have a friend majoring in Japanese that'd love to visit and we were going to go there since I have friends and know the city, but there's so much radiation that we can't.

Here's what I loved about Kōriyama.
- Decent sized city. Has everything you need, but it's easy to access anywhere. Not as big as a lot of the other cities I'd seen there.
- It had BEAUTIFUL parks and mountains and was just so gorgeous.
- It was very Japanese. I didn't see ANY other Americans while I stayed there. This is embarrassing to admit, but I rather loved the attention as the only American teenager in my area. When I visited Tokyo and Hiroshima, they were so accustomed to foreigners that we were just kinda ignored.

What cities would be good for me and my friend to look into?

Answer:

There are many great small towns and cities in Japan.

Gifu - the gateway to the beautiful and superb mountain scenery and hiking trails of Nagano. Gifu City is a lovely small city overlooked by mountains.

Gifu Japan
http://japan-australia.blogspot.com/2010…

Takayama - Takayama (高山市) is a small beautiful city known for its traditional architecture and crafts. Takayama lies in the ancient Hida district tucked away between the mountains of the Japan Alps.

Takayama Japan
http://japan-australia.blogspot.com/2010…

Gero - famous for its onsen (mineral hot spring spa). The town is fairly compact, making it easy to walk around and go hot-spring hopping.

Gero Japan
http://japan-australia.blogspot.com/2010…