Kurashiki-Shi, Japan

At first sight, KURASHIKI, 26km west of Okayama, looks like just another bland identikit Japanese town with a recreation of Copenhagen's Tivoli Park tacked onto one side. But ten minutes' walk south of the station, the modern buildings and shops are replaced by a delightful enclave of black-and-white walled merchants' homes (machiya) and storehouses (kura) dating from the town's Edo-era heyday, when it was an important centre for trade in rice and rush reeds. The compact Bikan historical area, cut through by a narrow, willow-fringed canal, in which swans drift and carp swim, is endowed with museums and galleries, the best of which is the excellent Ōhara Museum of Art.