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Fantastic. Challenging is the way to go, anything else is :sleep_125boring:sleep_125. Early on plan a hiking trip into Hokkaido. Many folks (foreigners) hitchhike throughout the island, during summer of course. Save Tokyo and points south for later.
I was stationed in Atsugi, but have been up to Misawa...Beautiful part of Japan, gets a lot of snow in the winter too...Sounds like you made a good decision!