Have 20 days to spend travelling in Japan and absolutely nothing planned...

I've got about 20 days in travelling to do in Japan during August, but have absolutely nothing planned yet. I'm landing in Osaka and the 3rd and may hang around there until the Naniwa Yodogawa festival on the 6th. I was thinking about getting to Shimonoseki by the 13th for the festival there and then maybe popping over to Korea for a little bit.

Now, does anyone have absolutely any good suggestions for places to visit in between Osaka and Shimonoseki? I'll be staying at a friend's place in Shiga afterwards and will have plenty of times to visit places nearby, so basically anything west of Kansai would be cool:thumbsup:

 

Basically, I was planning to stay at my friend's place for two months, but's he's going to be in France until the 22nd, so I need to plan something to do until he gets back.

I've already been to Japan before and spent quite a bit of time in Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, so was thinking of going further west.

 

The area in the west and northwest has some great towns and cities to visit: Onomichi, Hiroshima and Miyajima, Hagi, Matsue, Izumo for the shrine and Tottori for the dunes.