Each room in the villa has a view just like this - ample reason to visit. But the town is also nice to wander through, with lots of summer homes, artsy coffee shops and at least one bookstore run by an ex-Kobe person who moved here after the earthquake of January 1995. In summer the city hosts windsurfing competitions, sailing races, kite flying contests and all sorts of other events.

On the tour's maiden voyage, the challengers consisted of three Americans, one Australian and three Canadians. Despite all odds we managed to hook up at the central train station in Kobe and head west on pokey local trains across the Hyogo border to Okayama Prefecture.

The tour officially began with a very short ride south from Oku, the nearest train station, to the first villa, Ushimado. In recent years the city of Ushimado has tried to market itself as the "Aegean of Japan." With the exception of some olive groves and a few summer villas (mostly corporate) on the hillsides, this sleepy little coastal town bears as much resemblance to Greece as my apartment. The villa is quite a puff up into the hills, so you don't want to have to make too many trips back and forth into town. But the building is new and modern and the view is spectacular.

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