Help me decide on a Japan Sabbatical Plan--Breadth or Depth?

Post date: 2019-11-18 18:59:58

tl;dr: do I spend six weeks in Tokyo or a couple weeks in a few different cities? I am lucky to have a six week sabbatical. I am planning to spend all that time in Japan around March or April as a first time visitor. I am deciding between spending all or most of the time in Tokyo with maybe a few weekend trips or spreading it out between cities.

I tend to do TOO much on vacation, and run myself ragged and I'd like to learn to take my time and come back stimulated, but rejuvenated.

I am a regular solo traveler and I mostly prefer urban/offbeat (atlas obscura) travel. I assume friends might join me for parts of this too, so loneliness is not a huge concern.

On one hand, staying in Tokyo seems like I'll be missing out on a lot, but on the other, I will get the "feel" of the city and not have to compress a lot of sights into a short time. Some might also argue one of the busiest cities is inherently not chill, so would this be a mistake? I can obviously choose to leave Tokyo if I really crave nature (something that's never happened to me), but I'm trying to decide to get a place to stay in Tokyo for the whole time, or book a couple weeks and play it by ear. Moving to different neighborhoods might be nice too but it's considerably pricier than a long term airbnb. All tips are welcome!

LIKES:
--modern & contemporary art, grafitti (naoshima)
--food (highbrow and lowbrow) (7-11 as well as fancy stuff)
--pop culture
--museums
--crafts
--abandoned/dark tourism (battleship island, fukushima, rabbit island)
--onsen
--cherry blossoms, since it's the season

DISLIKES/BLOCKERS
--I don't drive
--I am not particularly interested in temples or palaces/ancient things (this sounds dismissive--I mean they're good just not a highlight or something to go out of the way for to me)
--Other than the ocean/sea life, I'm not into nature--outdoorsy hiking, mountains, animal life, etc
--Living out of a suitcase and having to move every few days

FAVORITE PREVIOUS TRIPS
--Istanbul
--Kiev/Chernobyl
--Seoul/North Korea

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