Nishiawakura is a small mountain village at the northern edge of Okayama Prefecture, where the Chugoku hills push toward Tottori. It is not a checklist town, and that is the point: the best reasons to come are forest paths, a simple onsen, and the sense of a rural community trying to make its woods matter again.
The village is mostly forest, much of it cedar and cypress planted after the war. Nishiawakura has turned that into an identity rather than a footnote, with woodcraft, forest products, and a long-running effort to manage the hills for the next century. If you like places where tourism is small-scale and tied to local work, it has more character than its size suggests.
Nishiawakura depends on your mood and transport. With a car, you can walk Wakasugi Primeval Forest, soak at Awakura Onsen, and stop for seasonal flowers or old shrines. Without one, the village is slower and more limited, but still a good rural pause between Okayama and Tottori.