I’m moving abroad to live and would like to stop somewhere along the way. I’m looking to experience something new that will challenge my perspectives

Hello everyone! At the end of the year I’m moving to Japan and I would like to make a stop somewhere along the way (Spain > Japan).

I have never experienced real culture shock and I would like to go somewhere that will show me something I’m unfamiliar with, surprise me in some way, challenge me or help me learn to appreciate something new.

For some background, I grew up in New Zealand but have lived in Spain since I was young. Travel-wise, I’ve been to Japan several times, S.Korea twice, Thailand twice, Indonesia, India and Uzbekistan twice, as well as around Europe. I come from a travel family where both my parents travel for work, as do I, and my siblings have lived in Myanmar and Peru so I’m also familiar with those two areas.

At the risk of sounding like a snob, I think I generally know the world quite well and have been lucky to be able to move around and meet all sorts of people, so I’m finding it difficult to land on a destination that might be truly challenging from a cultural perspective in Europe/Asia. I would like to visit Africa and Latin America but they aren’t really “along the way” in this case, and I think it’s better to leave those areas for the future when I can give them the time and energy they deserve. I’m looking more at Asia/Europe this time around.

I briefly thought of Georgia / Azerbaiyan / Armenia but I think they’re quite familiar already. Or Egypt / Jordania / Oman, but I’m a young (30 y/o, if that counts as "young" :P ) woman travelling alone and might want to join a tour for those countries, which is out of my budget at this time. I'm thinking Western China might be a good option but I’m open to other ideas.

TL;DR: Somewhere culturally or ideologically different, safe for a solo woman, somewhere located between Spain and Japan.

Thanks!