Green, rural, lovely Okayama would be a great place to relax and get away from city life even without the existence of the Okayama International Villas. But the presence of these excellent low-cost lodges makes Okayama one of the best places to go in Japan. Built by the prefecture specifically to allow foreign travelers to experience rural Japan, these represent the best of the current effort to restimulate rural communities suffering from severe depopulation as the younger people gravitate to the cities. Each of the villas is different - some are old farmhouses, others are modern lodges - but all are well equipped with cooking and laundry facilities. They are all worth a visit, and at least two would be considered outstanding luxury accommodations by any definition.

This is the route I designed to guide a group of foreign visitors through the prefecture, hopping from villa to villa, in the spring of 1994. We started at Ushimado in the east and made a huge counterclockwise circle, north up the mountains to Hattoji, even further north to isolated Koshihata, down to the hot springs at Takebe, west to the picturesque mountain town of Fukiya and finally south to end up on Shiraishi, an island in the Japan Sea. Your route will have to be a bit different because, lamentably, the northernmost villa, Koshihata, closed a few years ago. We decided to retain the Koshihata photos for the sake of posterity, and because you could still use the route as is if you chose non-villa accommodations in that area. If not, the route will be a bit shorter, but it will still be a wonderful trip.